Reversing Arcana
by Sinnatious
Summary: P3,P4. Six months after Souji leaves Inaba, he wakes up to his house on fire. The Investigation Team are the only ones who know he survived. But that's only the beginning of their troubles.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **Persona and its characters do not belong to me. This story was written purely for enjoyment.

**Warning: **Contains violence and occasional language. Consider this a heads up, it's not a fluffy fic. Also, spoilers for both P3 and P4 _everywhere_.

**Author's Note: **This fic had actually long been relegated to the 'abandoned forever' pile, and I had no intention of ever posting or finishing it. But watching all the trailers for the P4 anime (coupled with the urge to procrastinate on other projects) made me return to it, and here we are. Interesting tidbit: it's the first multi-chapter fic I've ever written in present tense.

Hopefully nobody has used this title yet - I did a search on ffnet for it and it came up clean, so fingers crossed. It'll probably be about twenty chapters all up when it's done. I plan to update twice a week, Wednesday and Sunday. It's gen, no pairings (except those in your head). There are also significant P3 elements included (but does that really count as a crossover when P4 is kind of a sequel anyway?)

Anyhow, that's the deal. I don't really know what I was thinking when I wrote it. I just wanted to keep exploring the P4 universe and characters. Also, it should be noted that the protagonist goes by 'Souji Seta' in this (based on the name the manga and subsequently fandom has been merrily using for some time), instead of 'Narukami Yuu' from the anime. This is mostly because I wrote most of it before the anime started airing. The perils of a fandom where the main character has no official name.

Hope you enjoy it.

* * *

**Reversing Arcana**

**Chapter 1**

By Sinnatious

* * *

Souji Seta opens his eyes to flickering orange light and a myriad of pungent, toxic odours. He coughs once, staggering from his desk, sheets of forgotten homework floating to the ground. The floor is uncomfortably warm beneath his feet, and his eyes smart from the smoke.

Adrenaline surges through his system, chasing away the lingering tiredness from his unplanned nap. It's dark outside the window, but he doesn't spare even a second to glance at his watch. He throws open the door to his bedroom. A wall of flame rushes towards him from the far end of the hallway. His parents' room! The heat drives him back even as concern pulls him forward, singeing the tips of his hair and licking at his ankles.

Out. He has to get out. Call the fire brigade. Why isn't the alarm going off? Where are his parents? They can't still be sleeping through this! "Hey!" he yells out, just once, and then doubles over in a fit of coughs. The smoke is so thick he can barely see – feeling his way into the living room by memory, racing for the exit, fresh air.

Fire envelopes the doorway.

Souji feels his first hint of fear.

He whirls, running for the back entrance. A wall of fire blocks him, blackening the carpet and climbing hungrily up the walls to scorch the ceiling. He searches for a window, but the curtains are ablaze, the plastic rings melting like wax.

He backs into the living room, coughing sporadically. It's a shrinking island amidst a sea of flames.

There's no way out. He's trapped. Where are his parents? Did they make it out? Did they forget him? He's going to burn to death.

Then his eyes land on the unassuming black rectangle, sitting unharmed amidst the inferno.

Does he dare…?

The heat is unbearable, and his throat is starting to close up. "Hey!" he chokes out once more, but the roaring fire smothers his words.

It's a choice between death now, and death later.

The flaming timber above his head creaks ominously. Souji doesn't have time to decide. He throws himself through the screen, and the world goes black.

* * *

"Gosh, just wait, I'm coming already!" Chie complains, fumbling with the remote and pressing 'pause'. Why always in the middle of a completely awesome fight scene? She runs for her mobile, glancing at the screen briefly to confirm the caller id before flipping it open to answer. "Yosuke! What is it? I was busy!"

Yosuke doesn't answer immediately – for a second she wonders if he's bumped his phone in his pocket while he's working again. Then, in a strangled voice that doesn't suit the Prince of Junes at all, he mutters, "Chie, Doujima-san just came around to talk to me, and…" He trails off, and Chie suddenly gets a terrible, gut-wrenching feeling. There aren't many things that can affect Yosuke like this, and her mind is already jumping to the worst-case scenario.

"Yosuke?"

"It's Souji. There was a fire. And…"

The phone slips through her fingers, and clatters to the floor.

* * *

Kanji doesn't like funerals. It's not the dressing in black – he wears black all the time – it's the theatrics and everybody going on and on about themselves. It's not about Senpai at all, to most of them – it's an obligation, something they have to be seen attending to maintain their damn respectability. Never mind that Chie-senpai's trying her best to contain her sniffles in the back, Yukiko-senpai looks like she's seen a ghost, or Yosuke-senpai hasn't looked up from the floor even once.

It's all a farce. They don't have any ashes for Senpai – there wasn't even much left of his parents.

There are a lot of people from Inaba. A couple of guys from the basketball and soccer teams. A nurse he recognises from the hospital. An old lady who looks like this must be her hundredth funeral. A girl from the drama club. Doujima-san and Nanako-chan too, of course, front and centre and both looking like their world is ending.

Next to him, Naoto is still as a statue. He kind of admires her for it – he knows she was close to Senpai too, even if she's not obvious about that kind of thing. Rise and Teddie, on the other hand, are blubbering into his sleeves. He lets them. Rise's a girl and Teddie's pretty enough to be one, so they're allowed to cry.

Kanji won't deny that maybe he lets a tear or two slip too. It was Senpai who taught him to be honest with himself, after all.

* * *

The day after the funeral, Yosuke has to go work at Junes. He can't summon even a fake smile for the customers, and eventually the ladies in the food court pressure his father to send him home.

He wanders Inaba in a daze. His best bud hasn't been living here for months, so it shouldn't feel that different, but somehow this tiny little town has become so empty all of a sudden. He sits alone at the riverbank until it starts to rain, then trudges home with mud clinging to his designer shoes.

The house is dark and quiet when he gets home, the wind rattling the windows and the rain thrumming monotonously against the roof. Perfectly miserable weather to match his perfectly miserable mood.

He takes a couple of bites out of a convenience store meal before throwing the rest in the trash and dragging himself to his room. He spends the next two hours staring at the TV.

It was all because of him - that terrifying, stressful, yet exhilarating year. For all the bad memories, for all the hard times, he still wouldn't trade it for anything. They'd made a difference, even if no one knows about it. He'd avenged Saki-senpai. Made new friends and discovered new things about himself. All thanks to _him_. And now he's gone.

"Dammit," he mutters, rubbing an arm over his eyes. "Dammit!" Why did fate have to be so cruel?

He glares at the TV through his tears, wishing he could wind back the clock six months. Heck, if he'd known this was going to happen, he would have bribed Teddie to keep them all in there forever. Would have thrown strangers into the TV himself if it meant his friend could have stayed in Inaba, alive and well and not dead in some freak disaster.

The dark screen flickers with static. A laugh gurgles in his throat. Right. Midnight on a rainy day. The Midnight Channel, the phenomenon that started it all.

Wait…

He blinks back the tears, staring harder. It's not just his imagination. Definitely... there's definitely a picture there!

Yosuke leaps to his feet, running and gripping the frame of the TV. "No way!"

* * *

Everybody's gathered in the food court – the old 'headquarters'. Even Naoto. The fox, too, though nobody could figure out how it knew to be there. The only one missing is Teddie – he hasn't come out of the TV since the funeral.

"I'm telling you, I saw him! No mistake! Same grey hair, same grey eyes, I think I know what he looks like!"

"Ghosts! Ghosts on the TV!"

"So he's not actually dead?"

"How can he be, if he's on the Midnight Channel?"

"But isn't there normally some sort of weird show?"

"But the show was always put on by that person's shadow! Senpai never had a Shadow, right?"

"What would he be doing in the TV though? He knows that's suicide!"

"Perhaps it was to escape the fire," Naoto points out, the voice of reason cutting through the chaotic chatter. "If faced with certain death, I might be inclined to take my chances in the TV as well."

"Yeah, especially since Ted's been fixing the place up," Yosuke adds, slapping his hand on the table for extra emphasis. "Listen, maybe it sounds crazy, but I know what I saw!"

"Then there's only one thing to do, isn't there? Let's go check it out," Yukiko suggests. "It can't hurt."

* * *

He has to keep his breathing even and quiet. Just until the Shadow is gone.

It turns the corner, and Souji stealthily steals down yet another corridor. They're identical, every one of them. It's vast – far larger than any dungeon they'd trawled through before. The Shadows aren't nearly as prolific as he remembers them being in the past, nor as aggressive – the removal of Izanami's twisted influence probably has something to do with that – but they're still plenty dangerous when you wander into their territory. He's managed to find a bent bar that suffices as a makeshift weapon, but he's acutely conscious of the fact that he has no backup. He sticks to Personae without weakness – if he gets knocked down, there's no one to cover him long enough to get back up.

His stomach gurgles, but he ignores it. He's been in the TV for days already and it's apparent the rules of the real world apply even less than he first imagined. Hunger and thirst are a matter of comfort in this place, rather than survival. He doesn't know how it works. It's supposed to be a space inside people's hearts, a third-dimensional representation of their collective psyches or something along those lines, but he's here physically. Teddie never ate food before coming to the real world. It occurs to him that it might be the main reason why everybody collapses after they make it out of the TV.

Will he make it out?

He keeps looking for an exit, hoping for a miracle. There had been an exit where he'd landed – a fact not lost on him – but he'd watched in quiet desolation as the television had blackened and crumbled into ash before his eyes.

He has an advantage in that he can fight – the only thing to make him different to the various victims a year ago. But he still has to sleep – fitful catnaps when he slumps down against a wall in an empty room, too tired to keep walking - and it seems like every time he does, the corridors have twisted around him, and he can't remember whether he was supposed to go left or right. The open halls and doors are featureless, lacking any distinction with which to orient himself. There's no Rise to remember his way for him.

There's no choice but to keep walking forward.

A couple of times he thinks he can sense others in the dungeon, but without glasses, he can't see more than a few feet in front of his face –_ wasn't the fog supposed to be gone?_ – and somehow, it affects the rest of his senses too, where everything smells grey and is cloaked in stifling silence. It explains why the Shadows could taunt them in dungeons, but their hosts would never reply to their calls.

The TV world is so quiet and empty. His footsteps echo unnaturally off the dark grey walls. A sick feeling churns in his stomach.

His parents. He still doesn't know what's happened to them, but maybe he does. They wouldn't escape the house without waking him. And the fire had already engulfed their room when he woke up…

Souji shakes his head, and forces himself not to think about it. His vision swims for a moment, and he rubs tiredly at his eyes. Is the fog getting thicker? His head feels like it's stuffed with cotton, and his limbs like they're made of lead. He needs to rest again, but nowhere is safe.

He peers around the corner, then recoils. Another Shadow!

There's no running from this one. Souji grips the bar tighter in his hands, pushes away his worry and fatigue, and prepares for yet another battle.


	2. Chapter 2

**Warning: **Contains violence and occasional language. Also, spoilers for _everything_.

**Author's Note: **A longer chapter, to make up for the shorter chapter that will be following it.

* * *

**Reversing Arcana**

**Chapter 2**

By Sinnatious

* * *

They haven't been back to the TV since their fearless leader left Inaba. There isn't any need to now there are no people who need rescuing. It's a peaceful, pleasant place once stripped of Izanami's twisted influences.

Teddie greets them in the open field – the stack of televisions makes for an odd sight amidst the trees and flowers. The bear is almost giddy with hope and excitement after Yosuke hurriedly explains the situation.

"I knew it! I could sense something had changed!" he exclaims. "Sensei's so _beary_ smart!"

"Enough with your wisecracks!" Kanji scowls. "Can you find him or not?"

"Teddie's nose will show the way to Sensei!" he declares. The enormous eyes sharpen, his nubby paws clench, and his face morphs into an expression of fierce concentration. "Nnnnhhhhhhhnnnn!"

"I'll look too!" Rise announces, summoning her Persona. "Let's go for it!"

Everyone remains silent and hopeful as the pair search. It seems to take an age before Teddie rocks back, features distorted into a frown. "I can get a general _bear_ection, but I can't get a lock on it!"

"C'mon! This isn't like the other times – we _know_ him. You can't possibly need more information!" Yosuke demands.

"I can definitely sense him. But it's far," Rise explains, brow furrowed with concentration. "Like, really, really far."

"Of course." Naoto folds her arms and taps her elbow. "He entered the TV world from the city. If we consider how distorted the space was just within Inaba..."

"But it's so peaceful here now," Chie protests, looking around the lush field with a pout.

"That's not what she means!" Yosuke is exasperated, though more with their lack of progress than Chie's misunderstandings. "So, what? There ought to be some way to get there, right? There's nothing more important than this! It's Sunday, no one's going to miss us!"

Chie recoils. "You mean walk?"

"Shame we can't fit a car into the TV," Yukiko muses.

"Would it even work in here?"

"Yosuke's headphones work, why wouldn't it?"

"Yeah well, guess it doesn't matter either way, right?" Kanji slams a fist into his palm. "Lead the way, bear!"

* * *

Junes is brightly lit and filled with cheery music as always. Doujima thinks it's maybe the last place he wants to be, but Nanako has been miserable for days now, and he's willing to try just about anything to cheer her up.

Except it doesn't seem to be working. They go through the motions of grocery shopping in silence. "Something catch your eye?" He asks lightly, in an effort to break the dreary pall. "Get something for yourself if you want, so long as it's nothing too big."

Then he realises she's looking at a tower of TaP Soda. She's never liked the stuff, but he knows someone who used to keep a handy stash of it. "Big bro…"

Damn. He didn't know how to deal with this last time, and experience hasn't made him any better at it. "Come on, let's stop by the food court on our way out," he suggests instead. "We'll get milkshakes."

"Okay."

They pay for their groceries, and laden with bags, head to the food court. Since it's Sunday, there are quite a few schoolkids wandering around. He stops by the burger place and orders two milkshakes – one chocolate, and one vanilla.

"Oh, Doujima-san! I heard about your nephew and sister. I'm so sorry for your loss," the lady at the cashier gushes in a hushed tone. "Here, you can have these on the house today."

"Thanks," he replies gruffly, because he doesn't know how else to respond.

That's the problem with small towns – everybody knows everybody. Doujima appreciates that they're trying to be nice, but frankly, he wants to pretend everything's normal for a while, and having every single damn person he passes in the street stop him or give him those sad expressions is going to send him insane. It's the loss of his wife all over again.

"The Hanamura kid around?" he asks as she hands over his order. Nanako seems fond of him, and they all lost someone important to them – it'd be better talking to him than having to accept the shallow condolences of passing acquaintances.

"Why yes, I just saw him and his friends head into the electronics department, um… a while ago now. Where _did_ they go?"

Those kids… hanging out at Junes again?

A thought niggles at the back of his mind, but he ruthlessly squashes it.

"Never mind then," he sighs. "Nanako, come on. We're going home."

For once, she doesn't ask to stay a little longer. "Okay."

In the end, the Junes outing doesn't seem to cheer up Nanako any, and all Doujima has to show for the trip are some groceries he doesn't even feel like eating. She retreats to her room as soon as they get home – another unusual occurrence – and the detective is left sitting alone on the couch. The house is so damn quiet now, even with both of them here. How on earth did his nephew handle living here alone when he and Nanako were in the hospital?

He flicks on the TV, just for some background noise. The weather report again. He remembers his nephew used to check it almost compulsively. Damn. He doesn't think he _can_ get away from these depressing thoughts. Seems like everything leads back to that tragedy.

What were those kids doing? His nephew's friends. They're an amazing bunch – he regrets not getting the chance to speak with them at the funeral. Hanging out in the electronics department again? Maybe they were reminiscing together. Word was last year they were seen going in and out of there all the time. Ogling the gadgets, he'd assumed.

He flicks from the weather channel to the news, then back to the weather channel again. The thought continues to niggle at the back of his mind.

TVs, huh? It was all so unbelievable… but then, his former partner never did explain…

Doujima recognises where the thought is going, and stops it in its tracks.

He's lost a loved one before. He _knows_ what's going to happen if he keeps dwelling on this.

Naoto's with them. Kid or not, Naoto's a fine detective. If there are any stones left unturned… In the meantime, he has to be there for Nanako.

His nephew would never forgive him if he neglected his daughter in pursuit of his killer. Not after all the trouble and arguments they went through.

He can't quite bring himself to entirely squash that sliver of hope, though.

A world inside the TV. Ludicrous.

* * *

"Man, this is taking _forever_!" Yosuke is complaining again. Naoto heaves an inward sigh, but doesn't comment. She doesn't need to – others will jump in quickly enough.

"Stop griping! It's not that much further!" Rise scolds him.

"I'm not complaining! I'm just worried about how long this is taking! We'd better hope he's waiting at the entrance, or we won't find him until way after dark! Junes isn't open late on Sundays, you know!"

"We should be grateful that at least it's a walk we can make in a few hours," Naoto points out, unable to contain a response much longer. It's up to her to be the voice of calm and reason now that Senpai isn't there to fill that role. "If this were the real world, the distance would be more than what could be covered on foot in a day."

The others don't have anything to say to that, and fall back into a awkward silence, punctuated only by the tinny beat of music emanating from Yosuke's headphones. The ground is patchwork, as one would expect from a world made up of people's thoughts and hidden desires. Grassy plains occasionally give way to cobblestone roads, giving way to bubbling brooks, giving way quaint pseudo-towns. There's the odd shadow wandering around, but most of them are docile and pay them no mind, and the ones that do fall quickly under a barrage of blows. It makes their passage quicker, at least.

"Hey." Chie's the one to finally break the mood. "Everyone except us thinks he's dead, right? How are we going to explain it when we bring him back to Inaba?"

It's a startling question – one Naoto is embarrassed she didn't think of before. They'd all been too giddy at the prospect of his survival to consider the _practical_ considerations.

"Uhh… couldn't we just say he wasn't in the fire after all? There wasn't a body or nothin', right?" Kanji replies.

"But then why would he only turn up now, huh? It's been like, a week and a half! And wouldn't he go to his parents' funerals? And where will he say he's been?"

"Amnesia?" Yukiko suggests.

"You really think that's gonna fly with Doujima-san?" Yosuke points out.

Rise folds her arms behind her head and stares up at the sky as she walks. "Maybe we could just tell his uncle about it? He's a cop, right?"

Naoto frowns. Telling other people about it should be okay… within a select group. "That might be the best way. I wouldn't say anything to him until we actually have Souji back with us, though." A part of her won't truly believe he's survived until he's there in front of them.

"Yeah, or we're liable to wind up in the loony bin," Yosuke agrees. "Did Chie and I ever tell you guys how we got hauled down to the station for carrying weapons around the food court?"

Rise rolls her eyes. "Like, a _hundred_ times senpai."

"Whatever! Who cares anyway. Let's worry about all that _after_ we get Souji back."

It's surprisingly sage advice from the Prince of Junes, and Naoto's nerves settle with it. They fall back into a companionable silence this time, punctuated by occasional remarks about the landscape or school.

That is, until Teddie suddenly speaks up. "We're heading towards a _beary_ bad area."

"What do you mean, 'bad area'?" Yukiko asks, picking her way carefully across the rocky ground. "Didn't we fix the TV world?"

"This is completely new! It's not like anything I've seen _bear_fore. And there are still lots of areas where the Shadows get a bit crazy! You can't help it – it's always been this way." At their distressed glances, Teddie protests, "You don't have to worry - it only becomes a problem when the separation between the two worlds breaks down! I've been studying it _beary_ hard!"

"I _guess_ that's reassuring," Chie agrees. "But I sort of thought, you know, after we defeated Izanami that it would be sunshine and flowers and everything _everywhere_."

"People ain't that nice I guess," Kanji grumbles and kicks at a rock. "You don't think Senpai is in that area, do you?"

It seems obvious to her – then again she's learnt time and time again what is obvious to a 'Detective Prince' is not necessarily obvious to everyone else - but Naoto is interrupted before she can answer. "Hold up! It's some kind of barrier!" Rise warns, five seconds too late to stop Yosuke from crashing face-first into it, headphones clattering to the ground.

He retrieves them with a scowl. "Little more warning next time, please!"

"What's a barrier doing here?" Naoto asks, holding her hand out and testing for the invisible surface. It prickles uncomfortably under her touch, like a static field, or a Zio running across her fingertips. "And who put it up?"

Rise is concentrating on the landscape beyond the barrier. Naoto turns her attention to that area, and realises that there's a twisted warp in the air, grey and black and white. It's hard to look at, and she doesn't think she would have even noticed its presence if not for Rise's glare. It looks similar to the entranceways they've traversed in the past, only much more insubstantial. Possibly related to the transformation the world has since gone through. "Senpai is _definitely_ past here," the idol confirms.

"So he made an area, just like the rest of us did when we were thrown into the TV?" Yukiko wonders.

Kanji kicks at the invisible barrier. "What, so he's keeping us out? Why the hell would he do that?"

"There's something suspicious about this," Naoto mutters. Nagging thoughts and troubling feelings are beginning to take shape in her mind.

"Of course it's suspicious! Why the hell wouldn't Senpai want us to rescue him?"

"What are you thinking, Naoto-kun?" Chie asks.

"It's about the fire. When I was reading the police report, it bothered me."

Yosuke is staring beyond the barrier into the space beyond, worrying his lower lip between his teeth. "What about it?" His voice is low, and Naoto suspects he might have already reached the same conclusion. He's the one who spoke with Doujima, after all – he probably already knows.

"Doujima-san didn't want it to get out until the investigation was finished, but all the reports so far suggest the fire was arson."

A ripple runs through the group at the news. "Arson?" shrieks Chie.

"Wait... so someone was trying to kill Souji?" Yukiko asks, horror evident on her face.

"But who the hell would want to do that?" Kanji demands. The fox whines and paws at the barrier next to him.

"I wish it were as simple as just that." Naoto remains composed, though it's honestly a struggle. "The fire had to have been deliberately lit. It spread much too fast, and to reach the sorts of temperatures that will reduce even bones to ash – that's simply not possible for an ordinary house fire." She takes a breath, and the delivers the _worse_ concern. "And it was started from _inside_ the house… but there were no signs of forced entry."

"Maybe they left the door open?" Chie wonders. "Ooo, or it was a delivery man!"

"Just because it was a delivery man once doesn't mean it'll be a delivery man every time you know," Yosuke jibes.

"Shut up Yosuke! It could be, right?"

Naoto is unruffled by their bickering. If that's what it takes to keep them focused on solving the mystery instead of falling into irrational grief and rage, she will happily tolerate it for hours. "Quite unlikely. It was in the middle of the night, and everyone was sleeping. And by 'no signs of forced entry', I mean that their home was protected by an advanced security system. I believe after hearing what happened in Inaba Souji's parents installed it for peace of mind. The security company didn't receive any notification at all." Which meant they were either dealing with a pro, or it simply hadn't been tripped.

"So..."

"So the perpetrator entered the house through a means other than the door."

"The window?" Chie scratches her head.

Yosuke slaps her on the back of said head. "You idiot! She means the TV, right? Wait." He pauses. "That means that there's someone else who knows about the TV?"

He is at least quick on the uptake. Kanji is still looking torn between anger at the news of arson and confusion as to what it all means. "It narrows down our list of suspects considerably. Aside from those of us here, there's Nanako, Doujima, Adachi, Mitsuo and Namatame."

"Well, we can rule out Nanako-chan and Doujima-san," Yosuke points out. "Neither of them really know much, and you _saw_ them at the funeral."

"And Adachi-baby and Mitsuo are both in jail for murder, aren't they?" Teddie pipes up, happy to be able to contribute something to the discussion.

Naoto's arms drop to her sides. "Which leaves only Namatame." Once all other possibilities are eliminated, only the truth remains.

"Whoa whoa whoa," Yosuke interrupts. "Namatame's free? When did that happen? Even if he didn't kill anyone, he still crashed that truck and kidnapped Nanako-chan!"

"After Adachi was convicted, Namatame's case reached a settlement. A substantial fine for his traffic infringements, a number of hours of community service, and mandatory counselling. He's on a sort of parole for twelve months. I understand that Doujima-san wasn't particularly satisfied, but due to the question of mental stability, the case would have dragged on considerably." She understands Doujima's frustration, but can't summon the same anger towards Namatame – he was tricked, just as they all were. He honestly thought he was helping.

Rise's brow is still furrowed in thought. "But for them to get to Senpai's house through the TV... I thought only Teddie could make an exit!"

"I don't think we can assume anything in this case. Senpai was capable of a great number of things in the TV world. As one of the three chosen by Izanami, Namatame was a similarly unique case. It's possible that he had the ability to exit the TV at will, but perhaps only discovered it later. Though if that is the case, it is a fearsome ability."

The others fall into a reverent silence. She knows they're all thinking the same thing – if it really _is_ Namatame, can they win against him in a fight without their fearless leader?

"So… you think this barrier might be put up by him too then?" Chie eventually asks.

"It's a reasonable assumption. Teddie, Rise?"

"Hard to tell. It definitely wasn't put up by a Shadow, though! Only humans can do something like this!" Teddie states, thumping his brightly coloured torso with fubsy arms.

Naoto nods. "The only question that remains then is the motive." Namatame shouldn't have any reason to try and kill their leader. But he has also been left mentally unstable after the strain and guilt and worry of the previous year. There's no way to deduce how his mind might work.

"There's only one way to find out then, right?" Yosuke asks, turning his back on the barrier and cutting the air with his arm in a single, violent sweep. "We go find him and ask him ourselves!"

"Yeah!" Chie cheers.

Kanji turns and shouts through the barrier. "Hey Senpai! If you can hear us, just hang in there, okay? We're going to go bust some ass, and then get you out of there!"

"It's Senpai, after all," Rise says cheerily, though her smile looks forced. Naoto finds it telling when an idol's smile is not convincing. "If anybody should be able to last in this world, it's him… right?"

"We'll save him," Yukiko agrees. The fox yips next to her. "We can't fail him, not after all he's done for us."

"Right! Let's go save Sensei!" Teddie declares, bouncing back the way they came.

Only then does it dawn on everyone else how far they've travelled. Yosuke throws his arms in the air.

"Crap, we've gotta walk all the way back?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Warning: **Contains violence and occasional language. Also, spoilers for _everything_.

**Author's Note: **Slightly shorter chapter this time, sorry.

* * *

**Reversing Arcana**

**Chapter 3**

By Sinnatious

* * *

He slides down the featureless wall, hands held in front of his face for inspection. Blisters. The bar he got them from isn't in great shape either. Diarahan can't do much for either.

It can, however, take care of the sluggishly bleeding gash on his leg. He crushes a card in his hand. "Daisoujou!"

The cloaked, skeletal Persona appears before him, and the healing light briefly warms his cold body. The wound on his leg, along with a number of other shallow scrapes and bruises, slowly fades. He misses this sort of magic outside the TV world, but it's enough that he never had to explain any mysterious wounds to his uncle.

With a sigh, he dismisses Daisoujou, and lets his head roll back against the wall. It's tough without Rise or Teddie warning him of approaching Shadows, or without friends to drag him back to his feet when he gets knocked down. The pressure in every encounter is enormous – even slipping up once can leave him crawling from the battle, energy spent and body aching.

His brow furrows slightly. It's a bit odd, though. The Shadows aren't as aggressive as they used to be, but that they attack at all... If the pattern holds, this is his space. He ought to have some control over it – all of the others in this situation had been ignored by the Shadows, at least until the fog rolled in.

Unless, he considers moodily, it _isn't_ his space. It's too… featureless. Artificial. Utterly lacking in detail.

The thought isn't one he wants to entertain, nor one he can do anything about, so he discards it.

Will he have to spend the rest of his life here, endlessly fighting Shadows?

That's impossible, of course – if he doesn't find a way out, eventually he'll slip up and that'll be the end of him. But there's bound to be an exit somewhere. If nothing else, he's sure to find Teddie eventually, and Teddie will _provide_ the way out.

His head nods onto his chest, eyelids drooping. It will take a while for the Shadows to repopulate this area – he can catch at least a few precious minutes of rest.

He wonders what the weather is like outside.

* * *

Yukiko begs off helping at the Inn the next afternoon so she can look for Namatame with the others. Later, she feels guilty about utilising her supposed grief over her former classmate's 'death' to acquire it. But if she _doesn't_ take the time off, that death might very well become real.

They're the only ones who can help Souji. As far as the rest of the world are concerned, he's already gone. No one would have even been _looking_ for him if Yosuke hadn't happened to catch the Midnight Channel.

School seems to last for an eternity. The class are surprised when as soon as they're dismissed, she, Chie and Yosuke all bolt for the door. They meet Kanji and Rise on the stairs.

"Naoto?" Kanji asks.

"Coming later, apparently," Rise reports with a sigh. "I don't get it. What could be more important than helping Senpai?"

Yukiko privately agrees, but tries to be reasonable about it – after all, she only barely got out of helping at the Amagi Inn herself. "Maybe there was an emergency."

"_This_ is an emergency!"

"Hey, what about Teddie?" Chie wonders.

"Staying in the TV world to keep an eye on things there," Yosuke explains. Probably for the best. Even with his human form, Teddie has never been any use on real world tasks – he's much too easily distracted by some iced treat, or sparkly trinket, or pretty lady, and they inevitably wind up reducing their manpower by having someone – usually Kanji – baby-sit him.

Everybody is accounted for then. "So where do we start looking for Namatame?"

"He used to be seen around town a lot… in the shopping district, on the Samegawa Riverbank…" Chie recalls, hands on hips.

When she thinks about it, Yukiko realises that she used to see him around town too, always looking perfectly miserable. She doesn't think she can recall seeing him at all in the past year, though. Like everyone else, she assumed it was because he was in jail, but now they know otherwise.

"So, the usual drill then? Spread out, ask around, if anybody finds something out, they'll call the others?" Yosuke suggests.

There's no point in abandoning a working model. They all agree, and split up to go their separate ways. Yukiko winds up taking the path along the Samegawa River.

It's maybe a little bit exciting, doing this again. Ever since Souji left, she's filled the empty space with her secret plan, to become independent and go to the city and carve out a new destiny in life for herself. It's rather time consuming – learning how to cook, looking up everything she'll need to know, and many hours spent dreaming about it. She only has six months left until graduation, after all. But it lacks the immediate thrill. She's happy of course that until now no one else has been put in danger, but it's still an adventure – a premature journey to a place more exciting. When you've never stepped foot outside Inaba, it's an adrenaline rush like no other. She's always been a little jealous of Souji for it – for already living the dream.

Of course, saving her friend is first and foremost in her mind. She remembers what it was like in TV world, feeling lost and confused and so _alone_, except for the times when her Shadow was there, taunting, and she realised that being alone was better. The uncertainty of whether she'd ever escape, or if she was to be condemned to an eternity inside the rabbit hole. And at the time she hadn't even been aware of what was showing on the TV!

The others must be thinking the same. She owes him. They all do.

Except the riverbank is empty of that distinct, gloomy profile, and everybody she stops to ask has forgotten who Namatame is. Eventually there's one old gossip who confides, in a hushed whisper, that she hasn't seen him for months, but they have the same housekeeper and she thinks he might have turned into a shut-in.

The message goes out to regroup outside the shrine in the shopping district.

"Did anybody find anything?" Yosuke asks. He looks tired.

"Nada. Zilch," Chie reports with a pout. "It's like he's just vanished!"

"No luck here either," Kanji mutters.

"Asking around, it doesn't seem like _anybody_ has seen him," Rise huffs.

"One old lady said that he's become a shut-in, and doesn't leave his house anymore," Yukiko reports.

"Really? Well, serves him right! I guess we'll have to go to him, then." Yosuke pauses. "Wait… does anybody know where he lives?"

There's an awkward silence. "Uuuuuuh," Kanji mutters.

"What did I miss?" A new voice smoothly joins the conversation, accompanied by a distinctive blue cap and an air of quiet confidence.

"Naoto-kun! Finally! What took you so long?" Chie exclaims.

"What were you all doing?"

"Looking for Namatame, duh!"

"But how could you look if you don't have his address?" she asks, perhaps a trifle smugly.

Chie is crestfallen at the reminder, so Yukiko points out, "He's not exactly in the phone book."

"Naturally – he delisted when he became a public official." Naoto holds up a folded piece of paper between her fingers. "However, he's still required to keep the police notified of his whereabouts. And it just so happens that I still have access to their records…"

Yukiko can't help it – she squeals. "Oh, Naoto-kun, you're amazing!"

Dark blue eyes widen, and a faint blush dusts her pale cheeks. "I'm just doing my part to help. This was what I left to get after school."

"Great work!" Yosuke plucks the paper from her fingers and peers at it. "Hey, this is near my house! That's kinda scary."

Kanji shoves his hands in his pockets and glares at them – though Yukiko knows by now that the glare isn't intentional. "What are we waiting for? Let's go! Senpai's waiting!"

They're definitely going to save him.

* * *

Yumi stays late after school.

It's not technically the 'drama' club – closer to being an anime club, or a literature club. They read books, and watch TV serials, and go to the movies once a week, though she hasn't been attending long enough to take part in the latter.

Yumi joined up the day after his funeral.

It isn't _hiding_, after all. And she _did_ like theatre, and opera, and movies. And her mother doesn't need her so much anymore. This is normal. She's simply throwing herself into a hobby so she doesn't become useless and mope and struggle with conflicting feelings.

People die. Tragedies happen. Real ones, to people undeserving.

"Not with a bang, but with a whimper," she concludes. The club room is empty. No one will care if she reads the poetry aloud.

Fiction helps. In fiction, there's nearly always a happy ending. In fiction, even the tragedies have a sense of purpose and closure.

She looks outside the clubroom. The sun is beginning to set. Only a few of the die-hard sports clubs members are still out on the field, the rest having finished for the day and trailed home one by one. The school is quiet. She'll have to leave soon too, before one of the teachers comes by to kick her out.

It's foolish of her. She had her closure six months ago, when he left Inaba. That brief, stolen moment on his final day in their small, small town.

Yumi closes the book, runs her fingers across the cover, and carefully replaces it on the shelf.

She had her closure, but a part of her had still wanted the story to go on.


	4. Chapter 4

**Warning: **Contains violence and occasional language. Also, spoilers for _everything_.

* * *

**Reversing Arcana**

**Chapter 4**

By Sinnatious

* * *

In the end, they couldn't make it to Namatame's house that day. It was getting dark by the time they made it to the right neighbourhood, and then Chie-senpai and Yukiko-senpai both received calls ordering them home. It was damn annoying to delay even another hour, but it wasn't like the rest of the world knew what they were trying to do. Naoto said that it was better to delay a day than to stay out all hours of night and wind up grounded and unable to help at all. Naoto's pretty smart like that – Kanji would have stayed out as long as it took. But then, Kanji would have just busted out of a grounding immediately anyway.

Either way, after another whole day at school – friggin' waste of time, but he really can't lose any more attendance – they _finally_ gather outside of a small, dumpy-looking apartment complex. Kanji cracks his knuckles – the familiar motion helps him release some of the tension he's been storing up for the past day. "So, we doing this?"

"Hell yes!" Yosuke-senpai looks just as geared up as he is, which is kind of reassuring.

Naoto merely knocks on the door – Kanji would have preferred to kick it down. "Namatame-san! Are you in there? We need to talk."

Silence.

She knocks again. "Namatame-san!" When there's no response, she folds her arms and frowns.

"He _must_ be in there!" Rise complains.

"If he's a shut-in, maybe he doesn't answer the door?" Yukiko-senpai suggests.

"Kanji-kun," Naoto says, standing to the side.

Alright! "Just leave it to me!"

"Wait, isn't that-" Chie-senpai starts to protest, but Kanji's foot has already slammed into the door.

It only takes two or three hard kicks before it crashes open – his Ma is always telling him these apartment complexes are cheaply made. "Oi, Namatame you bastard! We've got a bone to pick with you!"

"I'll take it from here, Kanji." Naoto smoothly interrupts him with a soft hand on his arm, and the small gesture, for some weird reason, totally freezes him up and gives her to chance to enter the dark apartment first. And then the rest of his friends after her. Kanji is left to take up the rear with a scowl.

Namatame is crouched in front of a small TV, the curtains drawn and blanket drawn over his shoulders, even though it's not that cold. He looks a nervous wreck. "Who is it? Who?"

Kanji doesn't have any sympathy for the guy. "Who the hell do you think? Did you think you could get away with it?"

"Kanji," Naoto says sternly, and with a scowl, he retreats and lets her deal with it. There's probably some sort of procedure to this or something, but if Namatame even thinks about denying it or pulling any stupid shit…

"Namatame-san, do you remember us? We're here to talk to you about the TV."

At those words, the pale face slowly turns towards them. Within the depths of those dark eyes, there's recognition, and then Namatame lurches to feet. "You-!"

Kanji is ready to sock the guy one, and he sees Yosuke-senpai tensing out the corner of his eyes too, but he just stretches out a hand towards them piteously. "You- You have to save him!"

The hell-?

"I couldn't save them. Couldn't save any of them. But he did. But who'll… when I saw _him_ appear on there…"

"You've been watching the Midnight Channel?" Naoto asks.

"I never stopped. Every time it rains. My therapist said I should stop, but what if something else happens?" He chews on his nails, though they're already bitten down to the quick. "There wasn't any warning… Nothing, for so long…"

"What the hell are you talking about, wasn't it _you_ who-" Kanji starts, but Naoto holds out a hand and silences him again. She's got that look in her eyes – the same look Senpai used to get whenever he was figuring something out.

"Why did you keep watching the TV though? You know that you can't hide people in there now, right?" Yukiko-senpai asks. A good question, too. The Midnight Channel phenomenon had stopped once people were no longer getting thrown in.

"Yes… but I thought maybe… I could still save them. Keep them somewhere _away_ from any TVs. It would be harder, but if it saved their lives…" He starts rocking back and forth, and it's damn creepy. "But I couldn't do it. I couldn't go out _there_, again. I couldn't do anything. It was already too late. Too late…"

Naoto begins talking in what Kanji calls her 'detective voice' – all low, cool and professional. "Namatame-san, please answer me truthfully – have you been inside the TV world at all since last year?"

"Inside? No, never. That place, it's a death trap. I never imagined… that poor girl… she's okay now, isn't she? They told me she was, but-"

"Have you been to the city at all?" Naoto interrupts.

"The city?" Namatame is confused. "I'm not allowed to travel without an escort. And outside is…"

"And Souji Seta. Have you had any contact with him whatsoever?"

"The boy on the TV! Please, you must save him! You were the ones who did it in the past, weren't you? Please, where I fail…"

Naoto sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. "We'll rescue him, Namatame-san, don't worry. I have just one more question for you – while you were in the TV, did you ever find a way to make an exit?"

He shudders. "An exit? There's no way out of that place. It's hell on earth. If you hadn't come along…"

"Thank you, that's all I wanted to know. Sorry to have intruded like this. We'll send money to replace the door." Turning to the rest of them, she gestures outside. "Let's go."

Everyone else is too confused to protest. Only once they are outside in the street does Kanji gather his wits. "What the hell was that? Why are we leaving?"

"Namatame-san isn't the culprit," Naoto replies. She sounds tired.

"What makes you so sure?" Yukiko asks.

"If he were the guilty party, he wouldn't draw our attention to the TV. And he still referred to that world as 'hell on Earth', without any mention of how it has changed. Furthermore, didn't you see the TV? A grown man like Namatame-san couldn't fit through it. I doubt even I could. He's completely cut off."

"He could be lying!" Kanji protests. "If it ain't him, who could it be?"

No one has an answer for him.

It starts to rain.

* * *

With a sigh, she changes into her nurse's uniform. It's nearly midnight, and it's raining. It's going to be miserable, doing the graveyard shift in this weather.

Of course, that's not the only source of her melancholy. She wanders through the apartment, turning off the lights, and picking up her bag and car keys.

Her eyes fall on the TV.

She heard something from one of the patients. Midnight, on a rainy day, if you watch the TV alone in a dark room, your true love will appear on the screen. It's already old news, as far as urban legends go, officially disproven but still dozens of people willing to swear by it.

She checks her watch. Two minutes to midnight.

It's a whim, but she settles herself on the couch. It can't hurt, right? She'll still be there in plenty of time – it's not like there's any traffic at this time of night. Or any traffic in Inaba _ever_.

When midnight rolls around, and the screen flickers to life, she wishes she hadn't stayed.

Her breath catches in her throat and she half-rises from the couch, hand stretching out to the TV. That grey hair, those serious eyes… Souji was such a cutie. She'd forgotten.

In a way, she thinks it's a mercy that he died. The burn victims unit is one of the worst. The ones who survive are marred beyond recognition. A lot of them wind up on suicide watch.

Souji isn't burned, as she might expect, but he doesn't look very well either. He looks tired - more tired than he ever did at the end of a late shift at the hospital. It's an expression she's seen before – on patients who've been told they have terminal illnesses, who aren't sure if they're going to survive. Not an expression she thought she could even _imagine_ on Souji's face.

Then again, it's just a ghost. Maybe it's just reflecting her exhaustion. She's been pushing herself again, ever since she came back from her three-month volunteer stint in Africa. He's not around to remind her to keep things in perspective anymore. Her grief, playing tricks on her eyes. She should be used to it. How many patients has she seen shuffle off their mortal coil?

It's worse, the little voice in the back of her mind whispers, because it's someone you knew. You were fond of him. He worked hard. And it was so sudden. When a patient comes in to the hospital, you can normally tell which ones will survive and which ones won't. You're prepared for it, so even though it's sad, you're able to move on quickly. You have a chance to say goodbye.

Maybe this is a sign; that she needs to say goodbye. That Souji. Looking out for her even beyond death?

"Goodbye, Souji-kun," she whispers.

The image fades from the screen. Strangely, she doesn't feel any sense of closure.

Your true love, is it? How unlucky.

* * *

"Man, what do you think is up with them?" Daisuke asks.

"Up with who?" Kou replies listlessly.

"You know, _them_. Souji's old buddies."

The name makes his gut twist, but Kou focuses his attention on Chie, Amagi and Hanamura, huddled in a corner of the hall in a private conversation. It's a turnaround from last week – they all looked like they might burst into tears at the slightest provocation. Kou can empathise – he thinks he _still_ might, if it weren't for tough-guy Daisuke hanging around to make him feel like a wuss for even wanting to.

"Looks like they're up to something."

"When _aren't_ they up to something?"

"Think it has to do with Souji?"

"Probably." Kou returns his attention to his shoes. It makes him a bit envious – they seem to have found some way of dealing with it. He can't even retreat into basketball – the entire team is bummed, and it's showing in practice.

It's backwards that they should recover first. They were great friends, sure, but Kou knows Souji was much closer to that group. He's not jealous, really. It's just that… well, he feels guilty. Because as sad as he was when Souji left, there was a tiny part of him that was relieved. Because with Souji gone, he didn't need to worry about competing with him over Chie.

Then the moron had to go break his promise, and now Kou feels rotten that he ever felt happy about Souji leaving.

"Don't fret about it, man," Daisuke offers awkwardly.

He manages a watery smile. "I must look like a real basket case if a block head like you is noticing."

"Hey, I notice things!"

"Sure, sure." With a sigh, Kou kicks off the wall. Maybe he should just give up on Chie. Even if she agreed to go out with him, he feels guilty every time he so much as looks at her.

* * *

Nighttime. It's cloudy, but rain is forecast again. Another day has passed without any progress – half of their number entrapped in other commitments they can't shake off without suspicion. Souji will likely keep for another day, but how many days they have, they don't know. It's frustrating. If only they could explain, to _anyone_…

Naoto thumbs the keypad on her phone.

She has contacts in all sorts of places. It was reasonable to check, after the case had been settled – after all, she is not so vain as to believe they were the only people in the world to be exposed to the peculiar phenomenon that is Persona.

"I'm sorry I couldn't talk earlier," she says as soon as the phone is answered. "I was with the others."

"_I understand. Has there been any progress?"_

"It wasn't Namatame-san. I'm going to suggest we do a general check on any acquaintances next. Someone who might have formed an obsession, an old crush, along those lines."

"_It's a good idea. Wildcards tend to draw people towards them."_

"You've never answered – what happened to him?" It's a touchy subject – one she knows she should steer clear of, but there's little wisdom in being sensitive when one of their own might be at stake.

_"It was different. After the phenomenon - we didn't realise it was related straight away, and…"_ Silence falls on the other end of the line, but Naoto remains patient.

Abruptly, the topic changes; the tone of voice turns cold and steely, all business again. _"You're absolutely sure you haven't found anything more?"_

There's something she isn't telling her. Naoto has performed enough interviews – _interrogations_ – to know when someone is hiding something. She doesn't know what exactly happened, but suspects it was bad. "I've already sent you all of the information I have." It's a subtle jab – she has been more than forthcoming in sharing information over the past few months, and despite the promises, it seems to have turned into a one-way exchange.

_"I see. If it's not resolved soon…"_ There is hesitation in her voice now. _"…Never mind. Just inform me immediately if there starts to be any spill-over, and we'll…"_

Naoto is expecting promises of backup, but when the sentence is left hanging, she frowns. Inwardly, she prickles – they can't possibly think of taking this case from her, they're not that much older! And whatever experience they might have, none of them _knew_ Souji, and wouldn't be nearly as driven to save him!

"Of course. I'll be in contact," she agrees crisply, and hopes her bitterness isn't audible in her tone. _Still just a child_, a voice taunts in the back of her mind, _still can't be trusted with an adult's business_.

They exchange farewells and hang up. Naoto stares at the phone in silence for a long while, before scoffing and placing it on the dresser next to her.

The Kirijo Group. As an organisation, there had always been something a little shady about them. But they're powerful. Far more powerful than a lone high-school detective and her friends.

Bringing their attention to Inaba may very well have been a mistake. But it is a mistake Naoto has to live with, now. And they may be the last hope they have in rescuing Souji.


	5. Chapter 5

**Warning: **Contains violence and occasional language. Also, spoilers for _everything_.

**Author's Note: **The anime is proving pretty awesome. Annoying about that random name change, though. He's still Souji in my head thanks to fandom.

* * *

**Reversing Arcana**

**Chapter 5**

By Sinnatious

* * *

Rise taps her foot impatiently. They're gathered in the food court again, and still no closer to finding a way to rescue Senpai from the TV.

They're stuck. Absolutely, positively, stuck.

"So if it isn't Namatame… who _is_ it?" Yosuke asks, slumping in his chair.

"Maybe someone completely unrelated? Do you think Izanami might have given more people powers, and they never discovered it until now?" Yukiko suggests.

Chie looks worried. "But that means we're back to square one!"

"It's unlikely," Naoto reassures her. "For such a person to reveal themselves now – what is the purpose? And how would they know about our involvement with the TV world? It's most likely to be somebody connected with us."

They fall back into silence. Rise heaves a sigh. She can't bear the thought of Senpai being stuck in that TV another minute!

"Hey, guys, I was wondering... what about someone from school?" Kanji eventually asks.

"From school?"

"Yeah, you know, Senpai was a pretty popular guy, right? What if he said something to someone, and they figured it all out?"

Chie makes a face. "I don't know… that's kind of crazy."

Naoto, on the other hand, looks pleased. "No... Kanji-kun has a point."

Kanji blushes, eyes comically wide. "I... I do?"

Yosuke elbows him. "Hey man, you remember she's a girl, right?"

"Shut up!"

Naoto ignores them like a pro. "I was going to suggest it myself. Senpai was widely respected at the school, and before he left, he had quite a few admirers. Somebody who obsessed over every little comment he said, or perhaps followed him regularly... there are any number of ways they might have found out about the TV through watching our movements. We were discreet, but they were plenty of means by which we might have been spied upon. And don't forget the Midnight Channel was quite popular last year."

Chie blinks. "Oh wow. But um, would somebody who liked Souji-kun that much try to kill him?"

"It's not uncommon for unrequited infatuations to turn violent."

Rise knows _all_ about that. She's had more than her fair share of creepy fans. An unsettling thought crosses her mind – that maybe it was one of _her_ fans, who got jealous over the affection she showed Senpai. Naoto is looking at her out of the corner of her eyes, and the idol thinks maybe she's already reached the same conclusion.

"So what do we do? That dude talked to _everybody_ at school – there was hardly a person he didn't do a favour! How are we supposed to track our suspect down?" Yosuke complains.

"The same way we always do," Naoto replies. "Talk to everybody you think might know something. The school is full of gossip – even if that person is no longer at Yasogami High, that sort of obsession isn't easily hidden."

Great. Another fact-finding mission. Rise hates these – people always want to collect her autograph instead of answering her questions. But if it's for Senpai, she'll tolerate it.

* * *

The crack of the ball against a wooden bat.

Shu thinks it might be his favourite sound in the world.

He's still small, still puny, and has glasses too big for him, but his teammates holler and cheer as he dashes to second base, ducking under the shortstop's glove. If he turns his head, just a little, he can see his mother in the stands, cheering right along with them.

For a moment, his thoughts flit back to a year or so before, when he'd spend afternoons and weekends like these cooped up inside, studying so hard, putting on airs, driving himself into the ground. Lonely. Enough that he started to look forward to his _tutor_ coming to visit.

Thankfully, those days are long gone.

The pitcher winds up. Throws. His teammate swings. The ball thwacks into the catcher's glove.

For a moment, he wonders what might have become of his old tutor. He moved away or something, right? Back to the city? He'd be a senior now. Probably studying for college exams or something.

He once felt sure that bond would be life-long, but he knows now that was silly of him. He was just some high school student who tutored him for cash. What kind of lifelong connection is that? They probably wouldn't even recognise each other in the street in a couple of years.

The bat cracks against the ball again. Then Shu is off running, and the thought disappears.

* * *

Souji runs down the corridor, footsteps thudding eerily off the concrete. The Shadows pursuing fall behind, and eventually lose interest. He slows his pace, rounds a corner, then presses himself against the wall while he catches his breath.

It feels like he's been wandering the TV world for weeks, and for all he knows, he has been. He hasn't found the exit to regular TV space yet, even though he knows it must be there – instead he only finds his way into worse and worse areas. The Shadows here make him nervous, even with his experience – they're on a similar level to those they encountered in the lower levels of Magatsu Inaba. Too much to tackle alone. He needs to find his way back to the comparatively sane areas, but without Rise's unfaltering guidance or at the very least a landmark for orientation, there's absolutely no guarantee he won't be heading somewhere worse.

That's when he sees it. One door, slightly different to the others. A burst of yellow in the colourless landscape.

He's drawn to it. Experience makes him wary – an unusual door in this world normally means a scary surprise – but it's the first deviation in this maze he's come across. Hope flutters briefly in his chest. The pathway to the regular TV world perhaps? If he can get out maybe he can find Teddie, or Teddie can find him.

Just in case, he brings Lucifer to the forefront of his consciousness, ready to summon at a moment's notice. He hesitates another moment, steels himself, and steps through the doorway.

No monstrous Shadows await him. In the centre of the room there's only a familiar-looking tower of TVs.

He lowers the bar in his hands and approaches it, scarcely able to believe.

An exit?

He thought only Teddie could make exits, but it's unreasonable to assume the only exit from the TV world is from Junes in Inaba. Where did this one lead to?

Did it matter? Nearly anywhere is better than here.

Experimentally, his fingertips skim the surface of the screen. It ripples, the same as always. Nothing unusual.

He can take a look first, just to be sure. His fingers slide past the surface as he brings his head forward.

Then something grabs his hand.

In a panic, he braces himself against the frame, but the tug is too strong and catches him off-balance. His footing slips, and then he's being dragged through, the world spinning crazily. The whirling comes to an abrupt halt as he hits white tiles, and for one second he wonders if the TV didn't just transport him to a different part of that same world.

There are cries of surprise and confusion. Something sharp clacks near his head. High heels. Souji raises his bleary gaze – everything seems so painfully bright, back in the real world.

A woman stands over him, with long, curly red hair and cold, sharp eyes.

"It's not him."

Then the wave of exhaustion hits, and Souji doesn't hear anything more.

* * *

Raining. Nearly midnight. Chie hops anxiously from foot to foot, before forcing herself to stop before someone downstairs asks what the cause of the racket is. Only three minutes left. The Midnight Channel isn't on for long – she can't miss it! This is her only chance to check up on him.

It's all a bit useless, though. Even Naoto's running out of ideas. They're no closer to finding the perpetrator – about the only thing they're getting is a long list of who it _isn't_. They should just go bust that barrier down! Brute force it! She'll kick it to the stratosphere!

"Yeah! Take that, you damn barrier! And that!" Her leg snaps out, smashing away an invisible enemy. It makes her feel a little better. She'll suggest it to the others tomorrow. "Oh! Midnight!"

The screen remains blank.

She waits, and then starts tapping her foot. "Hey! Is it broken?" The rain is still drumming on the roof in the background. She smacks the side of the TV a couple of times, but it doesn't help.

Midnight passes, and the screen remains black. Chie stares at it, dumbfounded.

"What?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Warning: **Contains violence and occasional language. Also, spoilers for _everything_.

**Author's Note: **Updating a day early, since I doubt I'll get the chance tomorrow.

* * *

**Reversing Arcana**

**Chapter 6**

By Sinnatious

* * *

The part-time girls are giving him _looks_ for not helping out, but for once Yosuke couldn't care less. It's for his _best friend_.

"Seriously! Nothing! Nada! Zilch!" Chie declares. "It was right on midnight, I swear!"

"I saw it too," Yukiko adds.

Yosuke didn't get to see – he'd been overtired from too many sleepless nights fretting over his friend and wound up falling asleep on what apparently was the _one night that mattered_. Until they figure out some way through that barrier, rainy midnights are the only time he can check on Souji. Except now it looks like they can't even do _that_.

"But… but…" Rise looks like she's about to cry.

Yosuke slams his fist down on the table. He refuses to believe it. "Damn! What the hell is going on here?"

Chie chews on her lip. "But hey, he hasn't turned up... you know... so he must still be alive, right? So if he's not on the Midnight Channel, and he's not on the news, he must have found an exit!"

The rest of the group stare at her.

"What? Oh no, did I do it again? I was just throwing random thoughts out!"

"Chie-senpai might be on to something," Naoto comments, biting a nail. "But that then raises another question - if Souji-senpai did escape, why hasn't he contacted anyone?"

"You think maybe he can't?" Yukiko wonders aloud.

"Hey, if Senpai made it out on his own, do you think he might have collapsed?" Rise asks. "He might be in a hospital somewhere!"

"No way Senpai would collapse!" Kanji protests.

Naoto sighs and tugs on the edge of her cap. It's a strangely childish gesture, and Yosuke wishes – yet again – that Souji were there to see it. "We're wasting time on speculation. We were all exhausted from our time in the TV, but not to the point of being unconscious for an entire day. If he _did_ collapse, he ought to have awoken by now – if only long enough to tell someone his name. The word would get to Doujima-san instantly."

It's good, sound logic, but doesn't make Yosuke feel any better. Looking around at the others, it's obvious he's not the only one who finds it a shallow comfort. It's up to him to voice what no one else wants to this time – he was - _is_ - closest to Souji, the responsibility for the really unpleasant stuff falls into _his_ lap. "Then why the hell wasn't he on the Midnight Channel?"

"Maybe it's broken?" Chie asks.

"Hey, what if it wasn't raining in the city? Could that change it?" Rise suggests.

It's not a bad theory, and Naoto's small nod confirms it. Kanji is looking lost and confused, but it's not an uncommon look. He's bound to say something simple at any moment that ought to actually get something done…

"Hey, I don't really get the why or why not, but the easiest way is to just check the TV, right?"

Right on cue. Yosuke could kiss him, but he doesn't want Kanji getting any ideas.

"Yeah! Let's go!" Chie agrees, leaping to her feet. The fox sitting next to her yips, and Yosuke jumps, before patting her absently. He keeps forgetting she's there, but he guesses she must be worried about their missing friend too. Souji never did explain to him properly what the whole deal with the magic fox was, and he's still a little annoyed he didn't tell him it was a girl until the day he left Inaba. No wonder she kept getting cross at him.

"Senpai, get your ass moving!" Kanji orders. Everyone else has risen from the table while he's been trapped in introspection.

"Coming, coming, jeez, can't you give a guy a minute?" He's barely slept for the past what feels like forever, between Junes and school and detective work and _worry_. He hurries to catch up, leading the way to the electronics department. "Let's just hope Teddie can-" Yosuke trails off and can practically _feel_ his face paling. His lips work, but he can't force any words out.

"What? What is it?" Chie hops around him, then freezes. One by one, the others notice, and their faces fall.

The TV is gone. In its place is a small cardboard sign, with one word written on it.

Rise is the first to react.

"_Sold_?"

* * *

Daidara's seen a lot in his time, but lately, all he can think about is that odd kid with the grey hair and matching eyes. Doujima's nephew, not that he cared to know the details. That was for others in the shopping district to gossip about.

Lucky for the kid, he's never been the sort to gossip. Except Daidara's been having an odd feeling in his bones. His art isn't coming out all that great – though that could be because his supply of unusual materials has dried up, and his inspiration with it. If he's going to be honest, maybe it's even because there's no one waiting expectantly behind the counter, belief in their eyes that he's going to produce something great, something they _need_. Maybe that was the first and last time he'll ever experience that in his life. He gets the occasional commission from a martial arts instructor – Daidara is well-enough renowned that sometimes people will even travel to pick their orders up – but the majority of his creations are used as decoration. It wasn't something he'd thought about… until the weird kid with grey eyes wandered into his shop.

Of course, Doujima's nephew won't be coming around anymore. He's not a gossip, but most news reaches his ears anyhow. And now he doesn't know what to think. Wonders if he maybe should have made better weapons, though the swords the boy bought were the best creations of his career. Wonders if maybe he should have mentioned to Doujima that his charge would buy weapons and armour from him, then bring them back a month later with nicks and scratches and scorch marks to exchange for something even tougher.

Too late now, of course. He'll never know the full story. Though he's tempted to ask. He's seen the other kids skulking around the shopping district again the past few days, the way they used to, shoulders tense, heads bent together in serious conference. The polite young lady detective even came to get her gun serviced and restock on ammunition, all the while making small talk asking after locals he couldn't care less about. The disappointed look on her face made him sort of wish that he _were_ a gossip, though. It sounded important.

He never could do much to lighten the load on those kids' shoulders, whatever it was. All he could do was give them tools, pieces of art that for some reason they treated like lifelines. There were times when Doujima's nephew would trudge into his shop with a desperate look in his eyes, and the only thing he'd been able to do was sharpen that desperation into a blade for him. That young lady had the same expression on her face, and she hid it almost as well as he used to.

His good eye lingers on the phone. Something's definitely up again. It would be easy to call Doujima, tell him a few things, drop a few hints. But Daidara has never been the sort to betray confidence. The phone remains in its cradle.

He's got a feeling, though. There's still a bunch of scraps in the workroom he bought from those kids. Maybe he can make something interesting out of them. He has the weird hunch it's going to be needed, and Daidara's always trusted his hunches.

* * *

"How can they sell it? It's _our_ TV!" Rise shrills.

"Crap, crap, crap!" Yosuke pulls at his hair. "This wasn't supposed to happen! That TV's been there since the store _opened_!"

Yukiko wishes she could sit down. She knows, logically, that they should never have assumed… but she feels broken anyhow. Things were already so bad, but to lose their lifeline to Souji…

"Can we track down who bought it?" Naoto asks.

"Well, yeah, it should be in the store records, but what are we going to do then?"

"It could be a clue."

Yukiko perks up at that. "You mean – you think whoever bought the TV might be trying to stop us from reaching Souji?"

Naoto looks reluctant to commit to the statement, but admits, "It's a slim possibility."

It's like switching a light on in Yosuke – give him a little direction, and he can go for miles. It's what made- _makes_, she corrects herself – him and Souji such a good team. "Right! I'm practically tech support here, so I've got access." He frowns at all of them in turn, before pointing at her. "Yukiko, I'll need you."

"What? But-" she starts to protest, but he's already dragging her towards the sales desk.

"Hey!" He snaps his fingers a couple of times, even as he lets himself behind the counter.

"Hanamura, what's up?" The cashier is relatively young, maybe only a year or two older than them, and looks slightly guilty at being caught reading magazines if his frantic efforts to stash them are any indication.

"Don't worry about it dude, I was just wondering if I could use the computer for a second?" His tone is friendly and casual, and Yukiko can see the façade for what it is. It's not that dissimilar to the face she puts up for customers of the Inn.

"Sure, sure, it's not like the place is exactly hopping…" It's _never_ hopping, which made their lives so much easier last year. "What for?" There's still a hint of nervousness in his voice.

"Oh, nothing bad! Yukiko here had some questions on behalf of the Amagi Inn, I said I'd help her out." He jerks a thumb in her direction, and when the cashier turns his attention to her, makes a whirling gesture with his finger before stepping to the computer.

Right, she's the distraction. "Umm, that's right!" she agrees, slipping reflexively into her public role just as easily as Yosuke did. "We were looking to upgrade some of the televisions in the Inn. We were…" She spends a moment groping for a plausible lie. "…thinking of modernising! But we're just looking into it for now."

"Yeah?" The cashier still has that star-struck look about him that Yukiko has come to hate – there are still plenty of people who view the Amagi Inn as local royalty, even though the much more famous Risette has come to town. "You're going to move to flat-screens, maybe?"

"It depends…" Yosuke is frowning at the computer. "It probably won't be a total overhaul. But for at least some of the larger suites…"

She's rescued from having to find a way of dragging out the conversation when Yosuke closes the window and waves a piece of paper with some illegible scribbles on it. His smile is definitely forced now, and her worry spikes. "Thanks man! I think I've got everything. Can we come bug you again later if I missed anything?"

The cashier is left a little off-balance by the rapid-fire words. "Uh, sure. You know, if you need to know anything I can-"

"For sure!" Yosuke cuts him off with a grin, leaving the counter behind. "Later!"

The others have wisely waited on the other side of the department. Yukiko follows him quietly, privately impressed by his skill at misdirection, however simple it was. His grades never suggested those kinds of smarts.

"So?" Kanji asks aggressively, as soon as they're back.

The cheerful public face Yosuke donned so effortlessly crumbles in an instant. "Cash."

"Huh?"

"You heard me. They paid fucking cash!" Yukiko can't help but cringe a little – Yosuke can be crass sometimes, sure, but she expects that sort of language from _Kanji's_ mouth, not the well-bred Prince of Junes.

Naoto, at least, knows what he means. "No details. No name. There wasn't a delivery address?"

"Walked out with it." Yosuke is seething, and Yukiko sidles away. Normally Souji is the only one who can deal with him when he becomes like this – Kanji's temper might be phenomenally short, but it doesn't even compare to the intensity of Yosuke's when he becomes frustrated. She's abruptly reminded that her classmate very nearly incited them to murder Namatame the year before. If it hadn't been for Souji's clear head and calm reasoning, he probably would have gone through with it, too.

They all have their dark sides, but Yukiko remembers that she never saw Yosuke's shadow. Souji and Teddie were the only ones. What was it like?

It's a dark thought that steals through her head at that moment, and she feels ills for it.

It isn't Namatame. Adachi and Mitsuo are in prison. They can't find anyone in town.

…What if it's one of them?


	7. Chapter 7

**Warning: **Contains violence and occasional language. Also, spoilers for _everything_.

**Author's Note: **Agendas. Agendas everywhere.

* * *

**Reversing Arcana**

**Chapter 7**

By Sinnatious

* * *

Souji dreams.

Not of a limousine, like he expected, but of a ridiculously ornate lobby. To a hotel, possibly, but it doesn't feel like that detail matters.

He looks around in pensive silence, attempting to identify the source of familiarity. Ahead of him sits a glass elevator, large enough to be a room itself, with royal blue velvet drapes and carpet and wrought iron framing the darkness beyond. The tall glass doors at his back also lead to blackness, though just before the encroaching gloom waits a gleaming limousine - one he suspects he's seen the inside of before.

Only then does his gaze turn to the concierge desk, and catch sight of the familiar blonde woman, dressed in that same shade of royal blue, waiting behind it.

Margaret.

He crosses the floor, footsteps echoing on the chequered marble tiles. He stops by the desk, and waits, because he doesn't know why he's here and knows that asking won't achieve anything with Margaret – not unless she offers first.

"It's… unexpected to see you again, Souji Seta," she greets, voice as measured and mellow as he recalls. Her lips are turned in an ever-present ghost of a smile, which widens slightly when he looks around, searching for a certain old man with a disproportionately large nose. "It is only I here today, I'm afraid. Your contract was fulfilled. You have already unlocked your potential."

Souji nods – he never expected to see even _Margaret_ again, truthfully. He eyeballs the elevator one more time, wondering why it gives him such a dark, oppressive feeling.

Margaret answers his question before he can give it voice. "This is a crossroads, a point of intersection that should never have occurred. Both wildcards have reached their destination. And yet... my sister searches for new routes still." She folds her hands in front of her. "An elevator can travel only two paths, in the end - into darkness, or light. You, on the other hand, could choose many destinations... many paths. It is this flexibility she seeks to exploit."

Souji's brow furrows. He doesn't fully understand. What does she hope to do?

And what does Margaret mean by 'both' wildcards?

"There is little I can do to help you, Souji Seta," she says, meeting his gaze clearly and seriously. "But I can warn you of this much. Gods can be subdued, but the work of mortals… that is something far more powerful."

* * *

Naoto lets her eyes slide across the group, resting on each of them in turn.

With the TV being sold, things have changed. They can't get to Teddie. They can't check on Souji.

Tempers are frayed. Paranoia is setting in. Panic is imminent.

Even she is not immune.

"We can't just _sit_ here! We need to do something!" Rise complains. There's a sharp twang to her voice, the country accent jutting out from under her normally smooth TV-friendly tones. "It's like none of you _want_ to find Senpai-"

"Hey, don't think you can get away with saying something like that!" Yosuke snaps. He's not shouting, but soon will be. "Of course we want to find him! You're hardly one to talk! You know, maybe it was one of _your_ stalkers who-"

Naoto forgets sometimes that Yosuke's not as stupid as he often acts – she thought she and Rise were the only ones who had entertained that particular notion. "Unlikely. This could very well be an unfortunate coincidence."

"But what if it isn't?" Yukiko asks. "The timing is a little too good, don't you think?" Her hands, folded in her lap, twitch briefly, and she keeps stealing glances at Yosuke.

"Yeah, what are the odds it would go missing right when we needed it most?" Chie points out.

"Damn it!" Kanji mutters, slamming a hand against the table. Everybody jumps, though some of them hide it better than others.

Naoto remains silent. The timing _is_ a little too inconvenient, and she can't help but wonder if her _friends_ in the city might already be intervening without her knowledge. Why they would _take_ the TV, however, doesn't make any sense. The only conclusion she can reach is that they might want to keep them _from_ the TV. She can only see two motivations for such an action – they want to protect them from taking risks, or…

Or they think one of them is responsible.

Her eyes narrow, and she's not surprised to see some of the others eyeballing each other shiftily. Yukiko keeps looking at Yosuke, and Chie and Rise are staring at him too. Kanji doesn't look like he knows what to make of _anything_. Yosuke, for his part, seems oblivious, apparently deciding to place his mistrust…

Naoto blinks when she realises it's _her_ he's eyeing suspiciously.

Does he know that she's been in contact with other Persona-users outside of their group? Until this whole fiasco, there had never been any reason to inform them that she'd made contact with others who shared their abilities, and then when such a disaster unfolded in their midst, she thought it wise to keep it a secret, especially when it became apparent there was a risk of them stepping in and taking over. She knows her friends and senpai well, and is aware that they would react poorly to the idea of handing over the reins of power to someone else, no matter how experienced. Souji is _theirs_.

"Is there any way other way we could see who bought the television? Security tapes?" she suggests.

It takes Yosuke a minute to answer, and when he does, his voice is gruff. "I don't know if I can get at them – asking to borrow the computer is one thing, borrowing the security tapes is something else. And unless something weird happens, the tapes are usually recorded over every 24 hours anyway."

"Huh! What good is being the manager's son then?" Chie's tone is as lightly neutral as always, but the choice of words is enough to make Yosuke's eyes darken.

"Sounds like an excuse to me," Kanji grumbles. "It's for Senpai! There should be a way, right? What if we just bust in there and tell them-"

"Let's not be hasty," Naoto interrupts. "There might be less drastic ways of acquiring the same information. The fact that the TV was there for so long without being purchased should mean that whoever sold it should remember who bought it. And even if they don't, there's a reason why that part of the electronics department is always so empty in Inaba."

"Oh – you mean, there aren't many people who can afford a big flat screen TV like that!" Yukiko realises.

Chie chews on her bottom lip. "Yeah, even after a year and a half it's still beyond the price range of most people in town. Maybe one of the doctors at the hospital?"

"I could probably afford one, but it would look pretty stupid in that old house." Rise's face is slightly pinched.

"Oh yeah, I kind of forget sometimes that you used to be Risette," Kanji mumbles. "Sorry, senpai, I'm wracking my brain, but there just ain't anybody in the shopping district with that kinda dough."

Naoto realises her grandfather could – the estate is plenty large enough – but doubts it, as he's never had much interest in that sort of frivolity. She'll check in case, but doesn't see the point in bringing it up – especially when Yosuke is giving her that _look_ out of the corner of his eyes again.

"In the shopping district…" Chie's expression stills. "…But what about Junes?"

Yosuke can't keep looking at her like she's keeping secrets, because now all eyes are on him. "Huh?"

"Hey yeah! Your father manages Junes, right? It's no secret you're loaded!"

Yosuke splutters. "Wha- We already have a perfectly good TV! It could be the Amagi Inn too, you know!"

"Hey, don't drag Yukiko into this! I visit the Inn all the time – I _know_ they haven't bought new TVs recently!" Chie leaps to her friend's defence as always.

"That's right," Yukiko states matter-of-factly. "And honestly, the Inn doesn't make that much money. The upkeep is pretty expensive."

"So what are you suggesting, then?"

"I don't know, Senpai." Even Kanji is looking a little cool. "Why don't you tell us?"

"What the hell is wrong with everyone?" Yosuke half-shouts, hand slicing violently through the air in an all-too-familiar motion. "I think I'd know if the old man bought that TV, okay? And if he did, it wouldn't matter, because then at least we'd know where it is!" Throwing his hands up in disgust, he turns away. "Forget it. I'll go check the roster to see who was on yesterday." His shoulders are hunched as he stalks away, and while he looks angry, the tightness around his eyes makes it look like he's a little hurt at their insinuations, too. He glances back only once, and his eyes meet cobalt blue before sliding away again.

Naoto feels bad for him, she really does. She doesn't honestly think he had anything to do with the TV's disappearance. Everyone's stressed, and with a lack of external targets, it was only a matter of time before they started to suspect each other.

But even knowing that, a part of her starts to wonder if maybe Yosuke doesn't know about her dealings with Persona-users outside of Inaba – because how could he, really – and instead might be wary of her for entirely different reasons.

People with guilty consciences tend to be nervous around detectives, after all.

* * *

She's an old, old woman, and Hisano has seen many people die. Strangers. Acquaintances. Family. Loved ones.

Souji Seta never precisely fit in any of those categories. He reminded her of her late husband, but… well, if she were a hundred years younger, she liked to joke. It does not escape her notice that her sense of humour has taken a new turn for the morbid. Souji would chide her gently.

She settles by the riverbed, just this once. She's allowed, she thinks, because she's not here to mourn _him_ this time. She's remembering someone else. He wasn't family, certainly wasn't a lover, yet more than an acquaintance. But she feels far too old, and far too removed from the world, to use the term 'friend'. Friends keep in contact, for one.

Her children don't live near Inaba, so she doesn't get to visit very often anymore. Wouldn't have known the fate that befell him, if it weren't for the Junes boy coming across her by chance when she was in town to visit her doctor. Recalled that Souji used to talk to her, apparently, but knew little else, and Hisano quietly approves of the evidence of discretion. Hanamura – she'd learnt his name then – had hurriedly blurted out the details of a funeral, stayed just long enough to be sure she wasn't going to keel over from the shock, and hurried away to hide the tears in his eyes.

Hisano has a lot of experience with death, and considers now that perhaps she ought to have said something to him. Because of that experience, however, she's certain that nothing she could have done would have made a difference. No one knows the shallow comfort of condolences quite as well as she. The boy will learn to move on in time. It took her years, and a healthy nudge from a certain grey-haired child. But now she wonders if this is backsliding.

"I went to your funeral," she mumbles to thin air. The fisherman nearby doesn't turn – the sound of the river swallows her words. "You've given me another unpleasant memory."

A trout jumps in the river, arching in the air magnificently before splashing back into the current. A moment later, it's reeled in on a fishermen's hook, scales sparkling in the sun.

"Don't be sad for me – it's just one more. Perhaps I am Death after all."

Not an acquaintance, not family, not a friend, but there was an unbreakable bond between them.

She chuckles humourlessly. "That's not quite true." Her voice is creaky like a broken rocking chair and as harsh as sandpaper. "Because the bond is broken now, isn't it? There's not much that can overcome Death."


	8. Chapter 8

**Warning: **Contains violence and occasional language. Also, spoilers for _everything_.

**Author's Note: **I can't reply to those reviews without ffnet accounts, so I thought I'd take this chance to say 'thanks for reviewing' here. Thanks for reviewing!

* * *

**Reversing Arcana**

**Chapter 8**

By Sinnatious

* * *

Eri smiles as Yuuta runs across the playground with the other children. A part of her sighs at the grass stains on the knees of his pants, but she doesn't mind the extra work like she once did. She's becoming used to being a mother, alien though it is.

It gives her something to do other than watch TV, besides.

The other mothers chat around her. She's new to these play dates with other parents, and Eri still feels on the outside of the group. She's younger than most, and has technically never been a mother herself, doesn't have the same experiences of childbirth and nappy-changing.

She's trying, though, and the distance feels a little smaller each time.

"He was such a good worker," one of the other ladies who also used to take her children to day care comments. "And such a way with children. I suppose he must have been used to it after dealing with his cousin."

"You mean little Nanako-chan? My daughter is friends with her at school, I don't know how the poor girl copes. She must be simply heartbroken."

"I'm surprised she doesn't come to the day care, actually. Her father's a detective, isn't he? He must work long hours."

"She's such a mature young girl, she's always very well behaved when she comes to visit."

Yuuta trips and falls, and Eri is about to rise from her seat in alarm, but he scampers back up a moment later, dirt on his nose and not a care in the world.

She sighs. It takes a lot of getting used to, being responsible for someone else.

"-spoke to him quite a lot, didn't you Minami-san?"

Surprised, she turns her attention back to the conversation. It takes her a moment to realise they're talking about poor dear Souji-kun.

"Yes. Since we were both new to town." She spends a moment searching for appropriate words. "It's a shame. He was such a kind and understanding boy," she says. They all murmur their agreement and condolences.

Eri had been tempted to go to the funeral, actually – out of gratitude, mostly. It would have been difficult to explain to others, though, how the current thawing relationship with her stepson is due largely to the part-time worker at the after school care.

She's glad she at least had the opportunity to thank him properly.

She feels sorry for those who didn't.

* * *

Souji wakes up on what he's almost certain is a hospital bed – he's spent enough nights working as a janitor to recognise the sterile tang of industrial-grade disinfectant and the feel of crisp, starchy sheets.

When he opens his eyes, though, he knows it's no hospital. There's no TV in the corner, no soft watercolour paintings, no windows or call buttons or the usual accessories to be found.

There is, however, the shuffle of a turning page. He rolls his head towards the sound, and sees the woman he'd glimpsed in his last moments of consciousness.

At his attention, she closes the book and sets it down. "I see you're finally awake."

He nods, slightly, and tries to sit up. Exhaustion drags at his limbs – dimly, he recalls it often took the others at least a couple of days to recover from their time in the TV – but he manages. Hopefully his experience with the TV world will cut down on the recovery time, even if he _had_ been without his glasses.

Or shoes, for that matter. He looks down at his feet, clad in now thoroughly dirty socks. His clothes are a mess, too, dirty and torn.

"You're in Iwatodai," she informs him primly. It takes a minute to place the name – this is where they had their class trip. It's still a long way from where he'd been living with his parents, though. "You collapsed immediately after we pulled you from the TV. Do you remember?"

He nods, and she studies his face, searching for something. Whatever it is, she seems to find it. She introduces herself. "Kirijo Mitsuru." Her voice is like sharp steel – it matches her appearance, with the perfectly presented business suit, manicured nails, and glinting crimson eyes. "I gather you must be Souji Seta."

Souji nods, again. He's tired, and wants to go back to sleep, but Margaret's warning rings in his brain.

Then she drops the next bombshell. "You've been officially dead for over three weeks."

And it feels exactly like a shadow has thrown an Agidyne at Jack Frost.

"…My parents?" The words crinkle like paper, thin and dry, and she hands him a glass of water.

"…I'm sorry."

He stares at the starched white sheets, and slowly sips the water.

It isn't like he hasn't experienced it before. He'd been nearly mad with grief in that short period when they'd been convinced that Nanako…. But this is the first time someone he cared about _actually_ _died_.

The ugly thought had been lingering in the back of his mind ever since he made his escape into the TV. A part of him struggles and swears against it, shouting denials. After all, they'd been wrong about Nanako, hadn't they? Somehow, she'd come back. _This couldn't be real_.

Souji takes another slow sip of water, and sets the glass by the bed.

She watches, waiting for a reaction no doubt, and when one doesn't come, asks, "Are you alright?"

"Can I call my Uncle?" he replies.

This time, she hesitates.

"We're working on how to go about that," she eventually explains. "As I said, the authorities think you're dead. And we cannot simply tell the world that you came through our TV."

That brings up another issue. "You know about the TV world."

"And Persona," she confirms. "The Kirijo Group has been investigating the existence of Shadows for many years… likely since before you were even born. It's long been our belief that the phenomenon was oriented around a research accident-" The word sounds loaded with history. "-and confined the majority of its affects to Iwatodai." She crosses her legs, then her arms, and leans back in her chair. "Our awareness of the TV world is relatively new. With the assistance of someone familiar with the events that occurred in Inaba, we have managed to breach into the world, though there is still much we've yet to understand."

That explains it, then – the reason for the cold, soulless, mechanical dungeon. It's a created space – not a world given life and form by Izanami, shaped by psyches unlucky enough to find themselves trapped in it.

…How is that he fell into it, though, from half an hour's train ride away?

"We've been having some troubles with it, honestly," she says, standing. "I hope you will assist us with them." She studies him more carefully, thoughtful now. "Your eyes remind me of…"

A knock on the door interrupts them, and the thought goes unfinished. She goes to answer, and confers with a man wearing an expensive-looking business suit. It occurs to Souji that he has no idea how old she is – at first glance, she can't be more than a couple of years out of high school, yet it appears as though she's running the company. But running a conglomerate like the Kirijo Group? It makes the Junes franchise look like a small fry.

"Excuse me," she says to him after a moment. "You should probably get some more rest. There's food in the fridge if you're hungry. I'll return later." She disappears outside, and Souji is left alone, and only marginally less confused.

The door is, of course, locked.

* * *

Naoki Konishi watches Yosuke Hanamura storm through the shopping district in a huff. The crowd parts for him, the whispers follow, but he doesn't think Hanamura notices. He's probably used to the murmurs and pointing fingers in the shopping district, and doesn't realise that their purpose has changed.

He knows about 'Hana-chan', of course - his sister used to complain about him on the phone to her friends. He guesses that's why Hanamura has never treated him like glass - he probably had a crush on her, or something, and was grieving himself. It's a weird thought to entertain, but the distance of a year and a half lets him examine the possibility objectively, the way Souji used to.

He wonders if Hanamura ever knew how much she despised him. Would it make it worse or better to know?

He watches the crowd of eyes following the 'Prince of Junes' with more interest than Hanamura himself. It's weird to be on the other side now. People have forgotten about Saki - her death buried in the subsequent murders and the closing of the case. By the time it all wrapped up, he couldn't even summon any anger at the detective who confessed. He did his mourning, and people have stopped giving him those pitying looks - those are reserved for Hanamura, now. Everyone knew Souji and 'the Junes boy' were practically attached at the hip.

It's an interesting perspective - he can understand the pitying expressions now. If he feels this desolate about Souji's fate, how much worse must Hanamura feel?

It's with this thought that he puts himself in the senior's path. "Hanamura-senpai."

The gaze that snaps up at him is as sharp as steel, but Naoki's excellent at feigning indifference. "What do you- oh, Konishi-kun. Hey. What's the matter?" The words are casual, but his voice and smile are strained.

"You don't need to pretend with me. It's okay to be upset. It's also okay not to be upset."

The words are blunt, but he's nowhere near as smooth a talker as what his senpai used to be. Stark, uncomfortable truths are more his style.

It's curious, watching Hanamura's expression go from confused to guarded. "What are you talking about?"

"Souji-senpai, of course." He flinches. "It doesn't make you weak to be upset. And you shouldn't worry if you're not as upset as you think you should be, either. It'll probably hit you later."

"I can't just-"

"You want some beef skewers? My treat." Not the sort of thing he'd normally do, but he remembers Souji taking him for beef skewers not too long after they met, and it had been the first bright spot in what felt like months of darkness. "It'll make you feel better for a while, maybe."

"What- It's not like that, he's not- if I don't-" Hanamura keeps interrupting himself, looking about ready to tear his hair out.

"Yeah, I know," he replies in a droll tone. "Two sets of beef skewers, please." The lady waves away the change with a pitying look at Hanamura. He knows that expression, alright. It's free food, though, and for a good cause. Maybe those pitying shopkeepers are on to something. He hands over the second skewer without a word.

Hanamura takes it out of reflex, but doesn't even look at it. "Dude, you are so weird."

Naoki has heard that before. "Souji-senpai's the weird one. He did this for me, when I was still feeling down about my sister."

There's the expected flinch. "Ha, yeah… sorry for, uh, never saying anything back then…"

He shrugs, and doesn't comment, pale eyebrows furrowing as he reaches the end of his beef skewer and Hanamura has yet to take a bite. It's not really going like he thought it would. He almost regrets stopping him. Maybe it was a bit arrogant, thinking that because he'd gone through the same thing, was going through it again right now, that he might be able to help Hanamura the same way his senpai once helped him.

Selfish motivations in the end after all. He's no better than anyone else. He just wants to feel better about how he's dealing with it by using someone else.

Hanamura lingers for another minute or two, before awkwardly handing the now lukewarm beef skewer back to him. "Um, thanks Konishi-kun, but I really gotta… I've got some stuff I've gotta do."

"…Okay," he agrees, because what else can he do?

They part ways with a nod, and the Prince of Junes continues through the shopping district, though he looks gloomy instead of angry now. Naoki finishes the second skewer, then shoves his hands in his pockets and stares up at the gathering rain clouds. It's been raining a lot lately.

Why can't he do anything? Was he like this when Souji dealt with him? It fills his mouth with a bitter taste.

He thinks maybe he liked it better when he couldn't feel anything at all.


	9. Chapter 9

**Warning: **Contains violence and occasional language. Also, spoilers for _everything_.

**Author's Note: **A cliché sort of a chapter ending, my apologies.

* * *

**Reversing Arcana**

**Chapter 9**

By Sinnatious

* * *

Naoto's phone rings that night. A quick glance reveals the caller – a number she's made pains to memorise.

Her thumbs reaches to answer, but then suspicion and anger flare in her heart, and she hesitates.

She can already see the conversation play out in her head. No matter how she struggles, she won't be able to refrain from showing her hand, from flinging accusations over the missing TV. And in the face of that, even if they deny it, she won't believe them. She doesn't _want_ to believe them. Because if she does, then that means she has to keep suspecting her comrades, and that's not a pleasant notion at all. Guilt and suspicion has dogged her in equal measure all afternoon, ever since Yosuke stormed out of their meeting with hurt eyes.

There are numerous holes in their logic, suspecting him. Naoto knows that. Rise, Yukiko, Chie, maybe even _Kanji_… anyone who might have once held a romantic interest in Souji would be a better suspect. Even Teddie, or Doujima-san. They shouldn't rule out people based on disposition – they should rule them out on alibis, on _evidence_, and if nothing else, motive.

It's hard, though, when it's _Junes_ they're frustrated with, and the memory of Yosuke's dark threats to Mitsuo and Namatame flicker in the backs of their minds.

Naoto's having a hard time trusting in her logic, lately. Old doubts are resurfacing. Old fears and insecurities.

What can she do? Kirijo will only demand more information and offer none in return. Even _if_ they were the ones who took the TV, _and _she could get them to admit to taking it, she doubts they would give it back. What she _really_ needs is a warrant, and the powers an official investigation can afford her. Without them, she's just a civilian. Her usual tricks aren't enough to get around a corporation as powerful as the Kirijo Group. They're apparently not even enough to deal with a group of fellow high-school students.

The phone continues to ring. Naoto lets it, and eventually, the room falls silent once more.

It's not smart to talk to sources when your emotions are threatening to take control. When you don't have warrants or subpoenas or evidence, and have to rely on people's cooperation and testimony, a botched interrogation can destroy a whole case. Better to wait, until you understand the situation properly, and know what lines of questioning to pursue. You often only get one chance. Her grandfather taught her that.

But she's not sure if it's her grandfather's lessons that stay her hand, or simply childish petulance.

* * *

Whoever the Kirijo Group truly are, Souji soon begins to suspect that he has exchanged one prison for another.

He sleeps most of the first day. For most of the second, he doesn't see the outside of his room – there's an ensuite bathroom attached, and snacks in the bar fridge in the corner. It's hard to tell whether it's meant to be a panic room or simply an overnighter for late-working executives.

Either way, when he bangs on the door, nobody comes to answer.

On the third day, they bring him out for a few hours - apparently at Kirijo's insistence. She asks him more questions about the TV, and about his Personae, and sidesteps his queries in turn. She looks troubled, but determined. They finally give him a fresh set of clothes, complete with shoes.

They take blood, and do brain scans. He feels faintly alarmed when he notices the gun holstered around Kirijo's waist.

They lock him back up when they're done, promising that they'll keep him 'safe', and telling him he should rest more.

He dreams of the hotel lobby again, that night. Margaret isn't there.

The empty elevator fills him with foreboding.

And Souji realises that he needs to escape.

* * *

It isn't until after school two days later that they manage to get the whole group together again. Everyone is understandably antsy, and there's still something weird about Yosuke's expression, but the question of what to do remains.

Naoto takes charge. "I've looked into what I could find out about the TV, but it's proven difficult. Did anybody discover anything when they were asking around?"

She's greeted with only a collection of gloomy faces. "Might have gone better, if _some_ people didn't run off on their own and leave us short a person," Chie remarks pointedly. Yosuke's scowl deepens, but he doesn't say anything. If anything, that sends off more alarm bells. He's among the chattiest of the group, and his silence is telling of exactly how bad his mood must be.

_If_ that's the only reason he's silent.

She gives herself a small shake. This is stupid. They're falling apart. Yosuke is right to be suspicious of her – she's been keeping things from them, and even if he doesn't know what he's probably observant enough to pick up on it. The simple truth is they can't continue like this. Battles can go badly very quickly when things aren't going smoothly in the team. Unless they work together, there really _is_ no hope of saving Souji.

"This is a problem, then. We're no closer to finding Senpai, but the longer we wait, the more dangerous it becomes." She crosses her arms and taps her elbow. It's never far from their minds that their fortunes may rely on the weather forecast. They've been lucky so far – the rain has been frequent, but brief – and their luck will not hold forever.

"And we're back at square one. This stinks," Rise complains.

"Not really square one. We gotta check the TV first, right?" Kanji asks, uncertain. "If Senpai made it out, that's good and all, but if he didn't then something's up with the Midnight Channel, yeah? And that means we'd better be busting our asses to get to him fast."

"Kanji's right." Yukiko looks concerned. "Everything's wrong with this. We _have_ to find a way to check the TV. It'll take too long to check the real world first."

The tension and worry is set to explode again any minute, but Naoto is helpless to stop it. She still doesn't understand how Souji used to keep them so focused, how he _kept his cool_ even when Nanako was thought _dead_ and Yosuke was goading him into throwing Namatame into the TV. Even _she_ had been almost convinced it was a good idea.

The voice is so uncharacteristically quiet, she almost doesn't hear it. "There's still a way."

It takes the others a minute to stop talking, but they do, one by one, and stare at Yosuke like he's grown a second head.

Rise's the first to react, though she's oddly cautious. "You've got an idea, Senpai?"

Yosuke shoves his hands in his pockets and stares at the ground. "Yeah. We just go ahead and enter the TV."

"What, are you stupid? This is the problem! The TV's gone!" Chie exclaims.

"So? Why does it _have_ to be _that_ TV?" He's still not meeting anyone's eyes.

"What do you mean, of course it has to be-"

"Why? We're not exactly helpless anymore, are we? And the TV world in Inaba is peaceful now. I've got a pretty big TV in my house."

"You're suggesting we go in from another TV? But what about an exit-" Yukiko clutches Chie's arm, the only visible sign of nervousness at the proposal.

"Did you guys forget Teddie's there? He can make an exit any time he wants. The Junes one was just convenient." He's practically babbling now, but his eyes are still trained on the floor.

"I don't know…" Chie's the one being cautious now.

"Look, I _know_ it'll work!"

Naoto studies him thoughtfully, then finally asks, "Senpai… what did you _do_?"

He flinches. So she's right.

Rise switches her attention between them. "Wait, what are you talking about Naoto-kun?"

She remains silent, gaze fixed steadily on the senior. He'll crack, eventually. He looks so close to breaking already.

"….'nt int' the TV."

"Huh? Speak up, Senpai," Kanji orders, though it comes out more like a threat.

"I _said_ that I went into the TV, okay?" His head snaps up, and his eyes are practically blazing. "I was at home last night, and I couldn't stand just not _doing_ anything, so I went into the TV!"

"You what? _Alone_?" Chie looks like she's about ready to kick his face in. She wouldn't be wrong to. "Are you _stupid_? That's really dangerous!"

"I know, okay! Shut up – that's not the point!"

"You made it back out again," Rise observes shrewdly. "So there _is_ a new exit."

"Yeah! Yeah, there is. I kind of… Teddie found me, I told him what happened, and he made a new exit."

It's good news, the first good news they've had for a while, but Naoto isn't done yet. Why would Yosuke keep their new option a secret until now? Even if he's embarrassed by his recklessness, the solution to their roadblock is more important. "Did Teddie say anything about Senpai?"

The question rattles him, and Naoto fingers the pistol hidden under her shirt jacket. "No, not… I can't really remember, I was kind of…" His shoulders slump.

Right again. Sometimes she gets tired of it. "What happened?"

"Nothing exactly happened, but it's kinda…" Here he stops, rubbing the back of his neck self-consciously. "Dammit. Maybe it's better just to show you."

That certainly doesn't sound promising. "Lead the way."

* * *

Late on the fourth day, they bring him out again. More tests. More questions.

He suspects he's at risk of becoming a guinea pig, at the very least. The memory of the elevator flickers to the forefront of his thoughts, along with Margaret's warning. But that doesn't matter.

There's a TV in the room.

They've been careful about it until now – he hasn't seen so much as a _screen_ in most of the rooms he's been shuffled between. They'd asked him to stick his hand in one while they took some readings, but it had been even smaller than the one he had in his room back at his uncle's place. No way would he have fit through.

This one, though, looks like it could be the same one he tumbled out of when he made his escape from the TV world. It's standing on a trolley in the corner. A big flat screen, the exact same model as the one in Junes.

They're watching him carefully, so he bides his time, waiting for a clear path. He's been the very paragon of cooperation so far, quiet and deferential, taking cues he's become so adept at reading to make them relax around him. He spies a pair of glasses, unguarded, on the table, and slips them into his pocket when nobody's looking. Possibly they're just someone's reading glasses, but he's hoping that if they've been researching the TV world, these are designed off Teddie's creations.

The elevator arrives with a ding, and Kirijo steps out into the room. Several of the researchers turn to see.

That's when Souji acts.

He leaps up, dashing straight for the TV. Everyone is too startled to do anything more than manage a shout. Fingers brush the back of his shirt.

"Wait-!"

"How did that TV get in here-"

Kirijo yells, "No, it's not safe-!"

Then Souji is falling, dizzyingly, down that familiar hall of screens. He hits the grey, featureless ground with a bone-jarring thud.

For a moment, he doesn't move – he's still not entirely recovered from his previous stint in the TV, but he had to take the chance when it presented itself. Better the TV, where he can move, and he can fight, and can call on Personae to restore that depleted strength a little bit at a time. And with the glasses still nestled safely in his pocket, he's sure he'll be able to find a different exit. Or Teddie. Anything, really.

That's when Souji suddenly realises that he's not alone.

"Well, well. Look who decided to come back. Did you miss me that much?"

His throat turns dry at the familiar voice.

Then something slams into his head, and Souji falls into darkness once more.


	10. Chapter 10

**Warning: **Contains violence and occasional language. Also, spoilers for _everything_.

**Author's Note: **I can now confidently say that the fic will be 20 chapters long. Which means this is halfway!

* * *

**Reversing Arcana**

**Chapter 10**

By Sinnatious

* * *

Something stinks. Rise's instincts outside the TV might not be as good as inside the TV, but she can still feel a wrongness about everything, and it's not just because of whatever Yosuke's problem is. She wishes he'd cut the drama and just tell them. Rise hates waiting.

"So we're all here?" Chie asks, standing on her tiptoes and counting heads.

"Everyone, senpai," Kanji confirms.

"I've gotta say, Yosuke, not a bad place you've got here," Chie remarks, staring unashamedly around the spacious living room. "Though I guess it's to be expected. Junes does pretty well, and all."

"Yeah," he mumbles, fiddling with his glasses.

"Seriously! We should have made _this_ our secret base! Way more room."

"Chie…" Yukiko whispers with a wince, eyeing Yosuke nervously. He keeps staring at the floor.

"Oh! Sorry! I didn't mean anything by it. It's just the first time you've invited anyone over, you know? I mean we've all been to Souji's and Kanji-kun's place, and Rise-chan's too if you count the tofu shop, but…"

"Don't worry about it," he interrupts, trying to wave it off with a smile. "It's no big deal. It's just embarrassing is all."

"Perhaps we should get moving. We don't want to be interrupted," Naoto suggests. Rise blinks. That's right. If someone comes home and discovers them all hanging out in the living room, they'll never get a chance to go.

"Then what are we waiting for? Come on!" Rise bullies Chie and Yukiko into the TV, though Chie continues gawking at the house until the last moment. It's a nice house, but Rise isn't impressed – as an idol, she's stayed in places far ritzier, and just as lifeless. A tiny part of her feels sorry for their reluctant host – it doesn't feel like a home, and she knows exactly what that's like.

In a way, it's almost a relief to be back in the TV, with the weight of glasses on her nose and her Persona a mere thought away from tangibility. She reaches instinctively for the power, for the extrasensory awareness that's such a boon in this world…

And realises what Yosuke's going to say before he even says it.

"So, now that we're here…" Naoto says pointedly. Rise sends her a panicked look, trying to tell the detective without words to soften up, show a little sensitivity. Of course, while Naoto _does_ do subtle, she doesn't _ever_ do sensitive.

"Hey, yeah, what was that thing you wanted to show us?" Chie chimes in, and Rise sends her a frantic glance too, but she's typically oblivious.

"Yeah, about that…I've kind of got a small problem," Yosuke mutters.

The idol swallows a lump in her throat, and forces the quiet words of encouragement past her lips. "You know we won't judge you, Yosuke-senpai."

The look he sends her is so _desperate_, so _broken_, that she feels sickeningly guilty for doubting him even once. Then he spins, the card shatters, and he mumbles, "Persona."

Except what comes out isn't the flame-haired, razor-adorned Susan-O everyone else expects. It's a bow-legged, mickey-mouse creature, more a colourful clown than the embodiment of a warrior they've grown used to.

Yukiko gathers her wits first. "Isn't that… Jiraiya?" Her brow creases as she struggles with the recollection.

"Jiraiya?" Naoto asks, perplexed. "Do you mean to imply that Yosuke-senpai can summon multiple Personae too?"

Of course. Rise forgot. Naoto joined them last - she's never seen either Yosuke's or Chie's initial Personae, so the implication is lost on her.

To save Yosuke the pain of having to answer, Rise steps in. "You remember, don't you, Naoto? Your Persona changed. As you grew stronger, so did your Persona."

Their Detective Prince is quick on the uptake. "I see. So this Jiraiya was… that's an unfortunate development."

An awkward silence falls over the team. Rise can tell everyone wants to ask how it happened – _she_ wants to ask, too – but deep down, they're worried it might be their fault. Confidence, resolve, and self-acceptance… these are the backbone of their Persona.

If Yosuke's backsliding…

"Hey, so where's Teddie?" Chie blurts out, voice pitched a little higher than normal.

"He's probably over by the barrier," Yosuke mumbles. "I think he said he planned on heading over there again yesterday."

Rise's the closest, so she gives him an awkward pat on the back. She'd wondered how Yosuke could have gone into the TV and not remembered to ask Teddie about Souji's situation, but after getting that kind of shock, she couldn't blame him.

"Can you sense him, Rise-chan?" Yukiko prods.

She frowns, sparing a bit of concentration, but when nothing immediately jumps out at her, is forced to summon her Persona. She's relieved to find hers hasn't changed, but she still feels out of practice. She used to be able to pinpoint treasure chests and Shadows through walls.

It takes her longer than she'd like to locate Teddie, and even then, the sensation is like grasping at a wisp of smoke. "Yeah, he's over by the barrier alright, but…" The sentence dies on her tongue, and she frowns reflexively before remembering to smooth her face. Her agent is always going on and on about wrinkles. "I think I can sense Senpai, too. Only…" It can't be, though. It's so far away, it's hard to tell. It's like an echo. Another presence, tantalisingly familiar.

"We won't be able to get there today," Naoto points out. "It's almost the weekend. There's rain forecast all next week. We should use the time and prepare. Make our excuses, and stay until we get Senpai out."

"What about the barrier?" Chie asks.

"We'll break it down if we have to!" Kanji growls, thumping his hand in his fist. He's kept quiet for the most part, most of it probably going straight over his head, but kicking down doors – yeah, Kanji is good at that.

"We've found ways through barriers in dungeons before," Naoto reasons. "With enough time, we can do it with this one. We should have explored that option first, in fact." She looks a bit embarrassed. Rise understands – she feels a bit embarrassed too. It would normally be the sort of thing Souji would take care of, and in his absence the notion didn't even occur to them. Even worse, it's her _job_ to notice things like this. What's the point of her Persona if she can't find a way around some weird barrier?

Yukiko stares into the distance, over the tranquil fields of flowers and streams. "At least we know he's still alive," she reasons.

There's that much. Some of the panic ebbs at that reminder. "Maybe it was just the Midnight Channel that stopped working," Rise adds.

Naoto frowns at that, but Rise doesn't notice.

* * *

He's brought back to consciousness by a burst of pain in his side.

"Finally. Thought you'd never come around." There's another, softer jolt in his ribs, then the scuff of shoes across concrete.

He tries to move, but it's like all the strength has left his body. His limbs feel like they're covered in half-dried cement, and it's a struggle to pull his eyes open.

What-?

The memory returns to him, though it's as foggy as the deceit within the TV world.

Even now, it's all he can do to force himself to stay awake. It's dangerous, his instincts scream at him. _He can't afford to sleep here._

_Not when Adachi's in the TV world._

"So. Souji. Souji, Souji, Souji," Adachi parrots, his voice practically a purr. "Doujima-san's clever little nephew. You don't look so impressive now, do you? Without all your little _friends_ to back you up." A pale hand reaches down, wiry and hiding unexpected strength, and twists itself in his shirt. Souji gasps as he's pulled up into a sitting position. His eyes roll around the dungeon, trying to identify it.

It's no good. It all looks the same. But the exit's gone. Adachi might have destroyed it, but more likely, he's dragged him somewhere else after knocking him out.

Adachi notices his wary observation, and the grip in his shirt tightens. "You like my new digs? It's a _lot _better than prison, you know. I got solitary confinement, because I was a cop. I _put_ some of those guys in there, you know? They said it's for my own safety, but those bastards… they're just embarrassed. Embarrassed that they were all too stupid to catch me, and some whiny little Detective Prince was right when they were wrong. Except that it wasn't the little brat, was it? The credit really goes to _you_." The words are oily, sliding and tumbling over each other, and the grip on his shirt twists, growing painful.

Grey eyes blink, trying to focus on the blurry image of the psychopath that had very nearly buried Inaba in a permanent fog. The sloppy suit is gone, replaced with orange coveralls, but the twisted visage has barely changed beyond that.

_How is this possible_?

"I never would have confessed if I knew it would be that _boring_. I didn't even get any visitors, you know." He seethes. "Not that there's anyone interesting enough who'd visit. They're idiots, all of them..." His scowl transforms, with eerie slowness, into a twisted, wide-eyed smile. "But you're here now. The precocious little brat who ruined all of my fun."

He's shoved against the wall, and his head snaps against the concrete. Stars spin in front of his eyes. Adachi's grin warps further in his blurry vision. "Won't you talk with me, Souji-kun?"

Then he remembers what Kirijo said.

"_With the assistance of someone familiar with the events that occurred in Inaba…"_

She never said _who_.

Coming back into the TV was a mistake.


	11. Chapter 11

**Warning: **Contains violence and occasional language. Also, spoilers for _everything_.

**Author's Note: **How awesome is the anime right now? I wasn't sure to begin with, but last episode had me alternatively in awe and stitches.

* * *

**Reversing Arcana**

**Chapter 11**

By Sinnatious

* * *

Souji chokes, feet scrabbling pointlessly for purchase on the featureless floor. He tries to reach for a Persona, _any_ Persona, but the fingers wrapped around his neck tighten.

"What would they all think, if they could see you like this, I wonder? Would they still worship you? All those shallow bitches care about is power. They'd drop you like a hot potato. I bet they hardly kept in contact when you left Inaba."

His fingers claw fruitlessly at the arms pinning him to the ground. He manages to crack his eyes open for half a second, but his vision is blurred. His entire body aches, where Adachi has slammed him into the wall, the floor, and kicked him viciously like a child attacking a toy in a tantrum. The fight is entirely one-sided. He can't gather the strength and focus long enough to summon any Persona that might help.

"And that Junes kid? Bet he's feeling like the top dog again. Probably soaking up all the attention. Maybe even offering the girls a shoulder to cry on."

He tries to open his mouth, to argue, to toss aside the insults like the trash they are, but only a wheeze escapes. It feels like something in him is shattering. As he's beaten down physically, he can feel it happening mentally, too. But even through the haze of pain, the desperate struggle to draw breath, he continues to fight, however ineffectually. He still fights to understand – Adachi's supposed to be in prison, he _can't_ be doing this, yet he's still here, still trapped in a nightmare that should be over, not getting _worse_.

"Did any of them really care about _you_? How many times did they come to visit you when Doujima-san and Nanako-chan were in the hospital? How many nights did you spend alone in that house, unprotected when you were being targeted?" The pressure on his neck eases, for just a moment, as though waiting for a response.

Souji doesn't give him one - simply uses the precious moment to steal a breath.

"Once you die, your influence fades. I bet they've all already forgotten about you. Maybe even as soon as you left Inaba."

A dull roar fills his ears.

"Your whole damn existence is transient," Adachi taunts.

Words. They're just words. They don't mean anything.

Except Souji knows better than anyone the power of carefully chosen words.

* * *

Adachi's grin stretches until it hurts.

He thought he'd missed his chance. He'd been cautious, to begin with, steering clear – it wasn't going to do any good going against Doujima's nephew with brute force straight away. He remembered that battle vividly – replayed it over and over in his head when he had nothing better to do, like a chess master replaying the last game they lost, looking for what move might have made the difference. No, better to wait it out, until the kid got worn down, and he could catch him unawares, get the upper hand before he could get the chance to use any of his Personae.

Then the brat found an _exit_ – put there by that bitch from the Kirijo Group, no doubt. They'd been looking for him. He thought he'd lost his opportunity. But now it's worked out even better than he could have hoped.

He still can't believe how it all came together, how he didn't realise the full extent of his abilities until now. Until it was too late to really put them to use, until after he'd already _lost_.

Yet he has Doujima's nephew – his fucking perfect nephew, the one that all those bitches swarm around, practically throwing their panties at him, the whores – here, in his grasp, beaten and weak and _helpless_. Not so high-and-mighty now.

"I'm the _real_ Izanagi," he taunts, tightening his grip. Souji lets out a choked little gasp, and his grin widens even further.

"That's right. You're just a brat who happened to get lucky. If I'd discovered this sooner, you kids never would have stood a chance. You had outside help. I had to figure this shit out on my own." He lost, but that didn't mean the game couldn't start again. Prison was _boring_. The inmates are even more stupid than those idiots in the police department. They _have_ to be – the police _put_ them there.

He's been given this chance, and he has no intention of ever going back.

He laughs, imagining the chaos that must be going on in the outside world. This is _priceless_.

* * *

The sounds of the city surround her, a cacophony of motors and music and voices and phones. A train rumbles past. An arcade beckons, the bright lights and machines clanging along to an irregular melody.

Shops line the street, filled with cosmetics to make her beautiful and clothes to make her trendy. Bookstores across the road, with secrets and knowledge and everything she needs to reinvent herself.

Ai Ebihara sits in an ice-cream parlour, eating her third sundae.

She's skipping school again. The eighth time since… well, she's here not to think about that.

She can have any man she wants, apparently – except the ones she _actually_ wants.

The waitress eyes her as she takes her bowl away, but doesn't comment on her school uniform. Business is business, it's not like the arcade where she'll be thrown out if they notice a truant. And she's been good this year. She can afford to be bad for a little while.

She's different now. She _is_. It doesn't matter that _he's_ gone. He's been gone for months. If things were a little different, she might never have even heard about it.

She doesn't care, anyway.

"Actually," she calls the waitress back. "Gimme a hot chocolate. With extra cream."

* * *

"Where the hell did I put it?" Kanji mutters to himself, digging through all the crap at the back of his closet. "Ah, hell!" Scores of plushies tumble out, spilling onto the floor.

"Tatsumi? Are you alright?" His mother's voice floats up the stairs.

"Fine, Ma!" Grumbling, he stuffs them back in, and after a bit more rummaging, _finally_ finds what he'd been looking for. He tugs out his shield, and then the lorica hamata, then that dragon bracelet.

They're in pretty good shape, he guesses. He runs his hands across the shield, the same way he might inspect a bolt of fine fabric, and feels the scratches and grooves worn into the surface. The handle's getting a bit loose too, and there're some pretty big chinks around the edges. That last fight with Izanami did a real number on it after all. The lorica hamata's got a few broken links too, and patches of it are brittle and blackened by those damn Maragidynes.

He checks his wallet. Yeah, if he sells back the old stuff, he ought to have enough. He was going to give his Ma the money from the plushies he'd been selling online, but he can just make more. Senpai's _life_ could be on the line.

He stuffs it all into a bag, though the edge of the shield pokes out the top anyway. No big deal, Daidara's is just down the road. He thumps down the stairs. "I'm going out, Ma! Oh yeah… and I'm gonna be out all weekend, so don't buy food for me or nothin'!" He doesn't bother making up a lie for her. Ma trusts him.

"You're not in any kind of trouble, are you?" she calls from the kitchen.

"It's fine, Ma!" he yells back. "I gotta go!"

He won't ever make her worry. He sees his senpai's uncle and little cousin in the shopping district sometimes, and he _never_ wants to see his Ma look like that.

They're gonna bring Senpai back, so his uncle and cute little Nanako-chan won't have to cry anymore either.

* * *

Souji watches, through slitted eyes, as the former detective stalks around him, just out of arm's reach. His fingers tingle from a Zio Adachi zapped him with when he got bored, but Souji knows him well enough to understand his opponent is not into physical torture, and is thankful for that small mercy. Adachi likes to see him fight, to see him struggle fruitlessly… but _physical_ strength isn't what he's most proud of.

Souji understands that. Wit and intelligence are what Adachi prize most.

What he doesn't understand is why Adachi doesn't just kill him. It would be the _smart_ thing to do, right?

Obviously, he's getting a high from the power play, from tormenting him, knocking him around, saying all those twisted, hurtful things, looking for the one weakness, the one button that will undo him… but Adachi's not the kind of opponent who would take those kinds of risks, dragging things out when it would so easy to kill him then and there. Not even for revenge. He's too _smart_ for that.

Struggling to think through the pain-induced haze – or is it just the fog, clouding the truth? – he concludes that no, Adachi has some other purpose. The way he looks at him, the way he pauses after certain words… it's like he's experimenting.

"I bet Doujima's become a basket case. I heard all about what he was like after his wife died. Do you think he'll spend the next ten years ignoring little Nanako-chan while he tracks down _your_ killer, Souji-kun?"

Souji doesn't react. His self-control has always been good. But he's never needed it as much as he needs it in front of Adachi now.

Ongyo-ki lurks in the front of his consciousness – the energy and focus _finally_ scraped together in the short lull he's been afforded. In terms of attack, the oni is hardly the heaviest-hitting Persona in his arsenal, but Souji needs to play it safe. Magatsu-Izanagi can throw a storm of wind and electricity at him, and not many of his stronger Personae are resistant to both.

Most importantly, though, Ongyo-ki won't let him miss the one chance he gets.

Adachi pauses, and eyeballs him with a creepy smirk. "He's the _real_ idiot, though. Trusting me. He even asked me to look after Nanako-chan a couple of times, you know? A guy like _me_. I could have done _anything_."

Souji's muscles tense, but he clamps down on the movement. Adachi's expecting it. He can't waste his one chance in a fit of anger.

Disappointed, the detective scowls. "Tch. This is getting boring." He aims another careless kick at his ribs, but with the oni hovering so close to corporeality, Souji barely feels it. "I don't know what that chick thought was so special about you. You're nothing in the end. Once I figured it out…" His words dissolve into angry mutterings.

His chance.

It's a random moment, not in reaction to any one comment, halfway through what might be a sentence.

Souji lurches to his feet. Ongyo-ki materialises in a flash of light.

He'll only get one hit.

One hit is all he needs.


	12. Chapter 12

**Warning: **Contains violence and occasional language. Also, spoilers for _everything_.

**Author's Note: **Posting a day early as I'm not sure if I'll get the chance tomorrow. I had a bit of a surprise on my status page this week, when I realised that with this chapter, I will have posted over one million words on ffnet. _How did that happen_?

* * *

**Reversing Arcana**

**Chapter 12**

By Sinnatious

* * *

It's late before they manage to gather at Yosuke's house – excuses made, just in case. Sleepovers, camping trips, weekend study sessions – whatever it took. This time, they're not leaving the TV world until they have Souji back.

"Is everyone here?" Chie calls out, perched on her tip-toes, counting heads.

"Yeah, we're all here, Senpai," Kanji answers. Even the fox yips, and Yukiko barely hides her giggle at Yosuke's distraught face, freaking out about his parents finding fox fur on the couch. "And I've got my equipment right here too." He hefts a heavy shield in his hands. Everyone nods – Yukiko brought her fan, Chie's wearing armoured boots, and Naoto is always armed. All of their equipment is new and shiny – Daidara must have done some good business these past two days. Even Rise has been busy – she might not need weapons, but she's filled a backpack with soda and snacks and bandages and all those weird remedies that gossipy lady in the sundries store sells.

"Yosuke-kun?" Yukiko prompts.

"Huh? Uh, yeah." He twirls a dagger on his finger to show, which is slightly nerve-wracking when he doesn't appear to be paying the least bit of attention.

"We should hurry," Naoto implores. Their excuses won't do them any good if Yosuke's father comes home and finds them all hanging around his living room.

"Right. You guys bring yours?" Yosuke asks.

Kanji and Chie lug their bicycles into the living room. "You sure this is gonna work, senpai?" Kanji asks gruffly.

"It better! But, um, maybe someone should stick their arm in there while we're doing it, just in case."

Dutifully, Yukiko sticks her hand in the TV – the screen pools around her wrist, and she can feel warm, stale air on the other side. It's a weird sensation, and she wiggles her fingers while Yosuke painstakingly manoeuvres his bike into the wide-screen TV. Rather than follow it in, though, he hangs back, hovering anxiously as Chie and Kanji follow suit. Chie manages to knock over a vase. "Eeek! Sorry!"

"Maybe I can fix it," Yukiko offers – it's only cracked. "I used to knock things over all the time at the Inn." She feels the need to be extra-nice to Yosuke now, especially after her doubts when the TV had been sold.

"Forget it," Yosuke groans, and mutters something about how 'the old man won't even notice.' He turns it around so the crack faces the wall. The fox hops into the TV with a dainty jump, and Yukiko follows.

The TV world around Inaba, at least, doesn't appear to be any different at first sight, but Yukiko's not the one who would know. "Teddie?" she asks Rise.

"Over by the barrier." The pop idol is squinting into the distance, as though troubled by something but unable to put her finger on it. Kanzeon's satellite dish tracks back and forth, seeking. "Something's different, though. I think we should hurry."

"Well that's why we brought these!" Yosuke declares, untangling the bikes. "Even if we have to ride tandem, it's gotta be faster than walking."

"Yukiko, you're with me!" Chie calls out. Yukiko smiles. She learnt how to ride on Chie's bike, and they've ridden tandem plenty of times before, so it'll be a cinch.

"Uh, Naoto-kun, if you, um, if you want…" Kanji stutters, face bright red.

Their Detective Prince, for her part, simply inclines her head. "Thank you, Kanji. I'm afraid I never had the need to get a bicycle for myself in Inaba."

"Woo! Looks like I'm with you then, Yosuke-senpai~!" Rise practically _leaps_ on him, and pokes him in the cheek with her finger, lowering her voice to a sultry tone. "Take good care of me, won't you?"

She's teasing him, obviously, but Yosuke looks like a startled deer. Yukiko stifles another laugh – if she starts, she won't stop, and it's not even _that funny_. But _his face_…!

He's rescued by a short bark. Yosuke looks at the fox. "I guess you can ride in the basket," he grumbles. The fox gives him a severe look, and jumps in nimbly. It's a tight fit, but she settles herself regally on her haunches, red-orange fur poking through the wire mesh.

"Right!" Kanji yells, filled with bravado – probably a lot of it to do with Naoto sitting at his back. "Let's go save Senpai!"

Everyone cheers, though some of their cheers are more uncertain than others.

This is the first time they've set out to fight on their own, without Souji leading them.

Yukiko can't help but feel a little nervous about it.

* * *

Adachi's snarl of rage echoes through the dungeon.

Souji stumbles onward. He has to keep moving. Has to get _away_. Because Adachi will follow, eventually. That hit he gave him won't slow him down forever.

He lost his bar at some point, he can't remember where – he probably dropped it when he got pulled out of the TV. All he has left to fight the shadows with are his Personae and his fists. It took up a lot of his strength to get even this far from Adachi. Physically, he's reaching his limit. He hadn't even recovered from his first stint in the TV when he'd thrown himself back in here. And then…

"Keep running and hiding, you _coward_. I'll find you eventually. You can't escape – _I _control the exits here. All thanks to a neat bit of technology our buddies at the Kirijo Group whipped up. And if _I_ don't get you-" He cackles. "-the shadows _will_."

But Souji has a trump card. One he's been keeping safe, protected in his pocket, all this time.

_The glasses_.

They're cracked, and sit crooked, but when he settles them on his nose, the fog thins. The throbbing headache recedes, if only a little.

"You're powerless here, you hear me? You can't do anything about it. I was the one who set that fire, did you know that?" Another bark of laughter. "And the best part? I never would have been able to if it weren't for you. You're a thorough kid, _Souji-kun_. That one letter you sent about Izanami had your new address right there for me to see."

Once more, he forces himself not to think about it, not to contemplate those vicious words, the same way he forces himself not to think about his parents. He tries to reason through things rationally, but soon he can't even do that, as that starts to bring him to things he can't afford to contemplate either. Not if he wants to retain any control at all.

"Of course, I can't give you _all_ the credit. Our buddies at the Kirijo Group had their part. They're the ones who hauled me out of prison so they could play with gods. Of course, I didn't feel like sticking around for everything that bitch had planned."

That horrible doubt lurks at the back of his mind, though. That horrible, hurtful thought, that he _knows_ is wrong, _knows_ is unfair, but Souji also knows that he might soon be reaching the limit of his understanding.

Logic hasn't been serving him too well lately.

"And do you know who told _them_ about the TV world in the first place? It was your little buddy, that 'Detective Prince'. Sure sold you out fast, didn't she? Bet she never even told you about it."

Darkness begins to creep in at the edges of his vision, and he jerks for a moment, expecting a shadow, but is met only with more fog. Even with the glasses, it seems to get thicker by the hour.

The fog, the deceit that clouds human hearts.

He's starting to think that perhaps the Truth isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

* * *

Even with the bikes, it takes them nearly two hours to reach the strange dungeon.

They shouldn't complain – even if the laws of space are somewhat warped in the TV world, it's a long way. It took them half a day walking last time. In the real world, it's at least an hour by train. They're lucky it doesn't take _days_.

Yosuke's legs are pretty sure it's been days already though.

"Hurry up, Yosuke-senpai! We're nearly there!" Rise's voice is shrill in his ear. The damn fox yips, too.

"Shut up, both of you! I didn't see either of _you_ offering to pedal! You're heavy!"

"What? Are you calling me _fat_, senpai?"

"What- No! I mean-!" No sane man would call _Risette_ fat. "Arggh! You're still a whole person! It's not like you're a bag of feathers!"

"Yosuke-senpai is so horrible!"

Just to make matters worse, Chie drops back to eye the commotion. "Hey, this jerk giving you trouble, Rise-chan?" Her voice turns syrupy sweet. "I still owe you for _Trial of the Dragon II_, don't I, Yosuke?"

It's a conspiracy. He's convinced of it. "Kanji! Help a brother out over here, would you?" Even if it's _Kanji_, beggars can't be choosers.

"Uhhhhhhh."

No good. Kanji's face has been beet-red the entire trip. Yosuke's pretty freaking sure those are _actual stars_ in his eyes, like he's been taking lessons from Teddie or something. He's expecting him to break out into sparkles and cherry blossoms any minute.

Yukiko seems to be struggling to suppress another giggling fit. No help at all.

For just that moment though, even with that big gaping hole in the group… it feels a little bit like the Investigation Team is together again, that they've recaptured that easy camaraderie they enjoyed six months ago. And Yosuke can forget about Susan-O and Jiraiya and this whole ugly mess.

It doesn't last for more than a minute.

"Hey, isn't that-" Chie squints into the distance. The fox's ears perk up, though her expression is deadly serious.

Yosuke follows the line of sight, and catches a glimpse of the blue and red blob just up ahead.

"Teddie!"

They all put on one last mad burst of speed, pedalling up to where Teddie's frantically waving at them. Yosuke ditches his bike, the fox giving him a displeased look when he nearly lets it topple before she can jump down.

"Everyone came!" The mascot's practically dancing in agitation.

"Teddie?" A note of uncertainty creeps into Chie's voice. "Did something happen…?"

"It's so _beary, beary _bad! It's the worst! I don't know how… it's dreadful!" He bursts into comedic tears. "You took so long! I couldn't _bear_ it! I didn't know what to do!"

A little alarmed now, Yosuke forces his tired legs forward. "Hey, Teddie, _relax_! Just calm down and spit it out, okay?" He thumps him on the back – a little bit harder than intended.

"Ah, wait-!" Teddie starts to cry.

With a pop, the head comes free, and rolls to stop next to Yosuke's feet.

The suit is empty inside.

* * *

Souji rubs at his eyes, then removes the glasses for a moment, just to check they're still working. The longer he uses them, the more apparent it becomes they're not as good as Teddie's.

A Shadow slithers around the corner, and rears up with a shriek. They're formless, in this dungeon – black, writhing messes of arms and eyes and teeth.

It doesn't mean they aren't dangerous. Or large.

A massive, clawed black hand lashes out at him. Souji steps back, barely evading the sweep, and crushes a card in his palm. "Loki!"

Loki doesn't come.

The next attack smashes into his shoulder, and throws him halfway across the hallway. The shadow slithers after him, screeching. Frantic, Souji scrambles for another – something, _anything_, with a one-hit kill. "Dominion!"

There's a pause, but the angel springs into action. The golden glowing sigil of Hamaon surrounds the shadow. With a shrill scream, it vanishes in a flare of light and smoke. Dominion fades a moment later.

It takes him a minute to get his breath back, and then another minute to struggle back into a sitting position. His shoulder is dislocated. With some effort, he pops it back in. His eyes are screwed shut, and his breath comes in ragged gasps, but he forces himself to focus.

"Daisoujou." He mumbles, reaching for the familiar Persona. He needs to keep moving, to get _away_, but without at least a Diarama, he won't be able to move.

The Persona doesn't appear. He takes a deep breath, and focuses harder. "Daisoujou!"

This time, it materialises before him, though its form is ghostly. The skeletal Persona barely remains long enough to cover him with a healing light, and the spell seems weaker than normal, but it's enough to chase away the worst of his pain. Souji forces himself to his feet.

There's something wrong with the Arcana. There has been for a while, but it keeps getting worse.

Mada of Magician won't come, though Pyro Jack will bounce out with a little coaxing. Nor will Beezlebub of the Devil, or Mahakala of Death, or Sandalphon of Moon. Isis, of the Empress, is one of the few that seems not to have diminished at all. Those of the Hermit seem fine too, still eagerly rushing into corporeality at his touch, but so many others lay dormant, quiet, and reluctant.

It doesn't matter. None of it matters. All he needs is to escape, to find some kind of exit.

He just needs some time. Some space. _Another way out_.

He lurches down the dull hallways, scarcely aware of the world seeming to twist, change, morph around him. As he keeps walking, there's a curious lack of further Shadows, but he's so concerned with keeping some distance on Adachi that he doesn't care.

Adachi's gone quiet, the past few hours. He doesn't want to think about what that means.

No more. _No more_. He's tired. He's dealt with too much. He wants to go home. Except home is…

Something breaks, but Souji keeps walking.


	13. Chapter 13

**Warning: **Contains violence and occasional language. Also, spoilers for _everything_.

**Author's Note: **I do believe this covers all the social links.

* * *

**Reversing Arcana**

**Chapter 13**

By Sinnatious

* * *

The entire Investigation Team is in shock. Even Naoto finds her composure shaken.

"What…?"

"Oh! Um, you never actually saw it before, did you Naoto-kun?" Chie asks. She sounds rattled. "Teddie didn't always have a Persona. When we first came here, this happened, and boy…" Her laugh is uncomfortably high-pitched. "Were we freaked!"

Yosuke pales. "Teddie! Are you saying… you've lost your Persona?"

The bear suit wags his arms, stuck on his back like a turtle. "Yoooosuke! Help me up!"

"Right, right." He puts Teddie back on his feet.

Naoto looks down, wide-eyed, at the head by her shoes, and with shaking fingers picks it up. "Thanks, Naoto-chan!"

Her voice is confined to her throat. She can't help but stare, fascinated, as Teddie's eyes continue to move, and his voice comes out loud and clear, even with the head detached from his body.

With some careful manoeuvring, the suit is whole again… and a lot less creepy for it.

"What happened, Teddie?" Yukiko asks gently, in that enviably feminine manner only Yukiko can.

"It's un_bear_able!" Teddie wails. "Ohhh, Yukiko-chaaaan! Sensei! Poor Sensei! And I was stuck out here and couldn't do _anything_ and it was even worse than back when I was just a shadow and I just got so beary _sad_ and-"

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Yosuke pats him on the back again, a little more gingerly this time. "Slow down there, buddy! What happened?"

"Oh! Well… it all started after you fell into the TV again! What _bear_ you thinking? You didn't learn anything, did-"

"Alright, alright! Enough already!" Yosuke interrupts. "Just tell the story. And stop it with the bad puns! They don't even make any _sense_!"

Teddie's ears flop and his face droops, but he keeps going. "I thought I'd head over to that weird dungeon again! To keep an eye on things for everyone! But just when I was nearly there, I realised Sensei had escaped!"

"What?" Chie squawks.

"If he made it out, that would explain why he didn't show up on the Midnight Channel that time," Yukiko reasons.

"But that means he found an exit. I didn't realise anyone other than Teddie could make exits," Rise points out. "Teddie?"

"I don't know! I thought I was the only one. Bear my nose doesn't work so well with this weird dungeon! It's not like the others. It's _unnatural_." He puts an unnecessarily spooky emphasis on the word. "But I was so happy when Sensei escaped the TV all on his own! Sensei is so _beary_ smart!"

"Hold up, if Souji made it out after all-" Yosuke starts.

He doesn't get to finish, as Teddie's expression crumples. "But that's just it! Then Sensei came _back_ and all these strangers keep _bear_ing into the TV world, and then the weird dungeon _changed_ and now Sensei is-"

"Wait," Naoto interrupts again, before Teddie can run off on a tangent and leave all the actually _important_ points behind. "What do you mean the dungeon _changed_?"

"It's more like a normal dungeon now! And Sensei's in there, and-"

"And what's that about _strangers_?" Rise demands.

"Hey guys!" Kanji shouts over all of them. When they fall silent, he jerks his head towards the entrance. "The barrier's gone. Are we gonna stand around here or get on with saving Senpai?"

"What? Let's go!" Chie says immediately, storming straight into the dungeon. As though they'd learnt absolutely nothing from all the previous dungeons they'd encountered. It leaves the rest of them no choice but to hurry to keep up.

Naoto's thoughts are whirling anyway, and she can't spare the attention to call them out on it and demand they stop and thinks things through first. She's on the precipice of figuring it all out, that same sensation she gets whenever she gets all the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, or all the evidence on a case.

Exits where no exits should exist. _Unnatural _dungeons. And strangers, in the TV.

It can't be.

It must be.

_The Kirijo Group_.

* * *

"Fuck!"

Adachi kicks the shadow in the head. It disappears in a squeal and whirl of black smoke. A weakling.

Damn weakling or not, why are the shadows suddenly attacking _him_?

"What the hell did you _do_, you damn _brat_?" His abdomen aches from that one terrifically solid punch he _never_ expected the kid to still have in him. It took him near half an hour to get his wind back, and moving _still_ hurts.

On top of that, the hallways have changed. The sterile grey corridors have been replaced, melting seamlessly into a new form.

Now it's nothing but mirrors. Floor, ceiling, stairs, all gleaming silver. The only variation is the occasional door made of frosted glass. The effect is disorientating and more than a little unnerving – not that Adachi would admit it.

It's the Shadows, though, that are the strangest. Most of them are just the standard weak fare you could find anywhere in the TV world. But the others…

Then he hears voices, echoing from a distant corridor. _Familiar_ voices.

Adachi's mad grin is born anew. _Perfect_.

There's more than one way to skin a cat.

* * *

Her dad is home for dinner. It's been more common this year – ever since Christmas – but the novelty has yet to fully wear off for Nanako.

Even if they're only convenience store meals, they taste so much better than eating alone, quietly fearing her father is going to disappear while he's out of her sight.

Just like her mother.

Just like big bro.

They eat in silence, the TV turned up loud to smother the awkwardness.

It isn't real to her. She still believes, somewhere deep down, that her big bro isn't actually _gone_. He's just in the city, too busy to call or send her letters or care packages filled with cute stationery or charms or whatever weird knickknacks he'd discovered that would fit in a parcel, like he used to.

She knows she lost an aunt and uncle too, but she'd been much too young when she last met them. She tries to summon a memory, but she can't even picture what they look like. They had pictures at the funeral, but in black and white and she didn't have eyes for anything other than the picture of her big bro.

They'd been strangers at first, but for that one year, she was a little less lonely. It had been scary, that November, and the hospital had been frightening, but she doesn't remember those parts that well. She'd been sick, and everything is blurry in her memories.

She remembers that funny boy, Teddie, though. And her big bro's friends, all of them so kind, visiting her and letting her sit with them when they came over and inviting her out to Junes with them. It made her lucky - some of her friends from school had older siblings who never wanted anything to do with their little sisters.

Most of all, though, she remembers her big bro, and his kind smile, and how he never berated her for anything and just always seemed to _understand_.

Her eyes start to water, but she blinks the tears away, and stares forlornly at her now-finished bento.

"Do you want some more?" her dad asks. "I bought extra so we'd have leftovers."

"No thanks."

Nanako had been much too young when her mother died to really understand what it meant. She missed the _idea_ of her mother more than her mother herself. She'd wanted someone to greet her when she came home from school, to help her with her chores and homework, to listen to her, and to cook homemade food.

Now, though, she's actually lost someone she _knew_, who _filled_ so much of that void.

Her big bro wasn't the same as having a mother again, but he'd been almost everything she'd wanted anyway.

Her dad switches the channel over to the weather, and stares at it for a long moment, then gets up from the couch. He pauses in the doorway as though in afterthought. "Did you want anything else from the kitchen? Some juice? Maybe some dessert?"

She shakes her head, mouth already puckering into a small frown.

He's going to be drinking again. She doesn't like it when he drinks.

While he clatters around the kitchen, the weather forecast completes its loop. Nanako reaches for the remote, and changes over to one of the variety game shows that are always playing in the evenings. Nanako hums along with the opening theme tune, a small smile taking root on her face.

He comes back in a moment later, beer clutched in hand, and his face darkens. "Nanako, don't-" Her dad snatches up the remote and changes it back.

She hunches her shoulders, melody dying in her throat. "I thought you were done," she mumbles.

He sighs – that annoying, adult sigh she's heard far too often in her life, and quietly hates. She's told him before that she doesn't like it when he does that, but it never makes a difference. He doesn't listen.

Not like her big bro did.

"Why are you always watching the weather channel?" she asks instead, when another loop finishes and he doesn't make any move to switch channels. It's boring. It's not going to change if he keeps looking at it.

"…I have no damn idea," he mutters.

They sit in the living room in silence, but for the quiet murmur of the weather report.

Nanako goes to bed early, stares at the ceiling, and makes wishes she knows will never come true.

* * *

"This... is Senpai's dungeon?" Rise whispers.

It's mirrors. Endless, misty corridors of mirrors.

That's not the worst part. It's their reflections.

Their Shadows stare back at them, with creepy yellow eyes and twisted expressions. Sometimes they'll match their every motion perfectly, and then will abruptly move in an unexpected way. Rise tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, watching her Shadow do the same, trying not to be unnerved by the demonic eyes and the sultry smile on her face. The reflection suddenly blows her a kiss, and Rise's fingers twitch and muscles jerk, as though _her_ hand wants to rise and do the same.

"What the hell is this?" Kanji sputters. He steps back from the wall, jerking when he turns away only to find the reflection _behind_ him with an arm on its hip, leering at him. The image flickers for a moment, and though the odd smile and amber eyes remain, it copies his movements like a regular mirror once more.

It's disturbing. What does this _say_ about Senpai? What part of himself is he denying? What does it _mean_?

"Shouldn't we be able to hear a Shadow?" Chie wonders. "Before, there was always a Shadow taunting us, right?"

"But he never _had_ that! He's already got a Persona. Like, a million of them, in fact!" Yosuke complains. He scowls at his Shadow self in the mirror, and it gives him a dark grin in return.

"Can you sense anything, Rise-chan?" Yukiko asks. She's obviously trying her best not to look at the walls, but it's hard to avoid, when it's not just the walls but the floor and ceiling, too.

Rise tears her gaze away from her reflection to check, but Himiko can barely make anything out. The Shadows are different, though. There's something fundamentally _wrong_ with this dungeon, in a completely different way to any before. "Sorry guys. I'm picking up hardly anything… There's too much interference."

"Who cares?" That's Yosuke again, predictably. He flips one of his daggers in his hand, and starts forward. "We're in, all we gotta do is find him! We can worry about what it all means later!"

"Yeah!" Kanji brandishes his shield and follows. "All that matters is getting Senpai outta here!"

Rise glances at Teddie, who's standing next to her looking rather unsure of himself. Unnervingly, he doesn't seem to have any reflection at all. Understandable, if he's lost his Persona. "What about you, Teddie?"

He shakes his head, despondent. "My nose doesn't know what to make of any of it. I never thought _Sensei_ would… If _Sensei_ can't, then bear can I…"

"C'mon, we'd better hurry before those two idiots run too far ahead and get themselves killed. Geez! You'd think we'd never run a dungeon before!" Chie complains. Yukiko gives her an indulgent smile – as though Chie _hadn't_ done the exact same thing less than ten minutes before.

Naoto is, as always, implacable in the face of uncomfortable weirdness, drawing and checking her gun before following at a slightly more cautious pace. "Teddie, you hang back and guard Rise. We don't know what to expect in here."

Teddie salutes, steam – _actual steam_ – rising out of his ears. "Yesbear! I won't let _anything_ happen to the lovely Rise-chan!" He seems to have bounced back relatively quickly from the loss of his human form, at least. Teddie is, at the end of the day, a simple guy with a terrifically short attention span.

"Thanks, Ted." Rise gives him one of her winning TV smiles – he's earned it, if he can keep on being his goofy upbeat self in the face of a setback like that.

"Rise-chan is so lovely~!"

Then they have to hurry, or they really _will_ be left behind.

It doesn't take them long to catch up, though, and soon Naoto drops back to guard them as well – Teddie doesn't pack much punch without a Persona, and the Shadows are causing trouble. It's a rude wakeup call - Shadows that normally would have been a cakewalk take ages to wear down. And every enemy that is weak to wind they come across is suddenly a toil. Yosuke's the only one with a wind affinity, and Jiraiya just doesn't have the same hitting power they've come to expect from Susan-O.

Those creepy reflections are distracting, too.

"This one's weak against fire!" Rise calls out. Yukiko nods her thanks, and lets loose an impressive inferno – flames dance in the reflection of her glasses, and her black hair is tossed about by the waves of heat. The princess of the Amagi Inn looks pretty demure most of the time, but like this, Rise can't help but think she could be totally badass, like one of those hardcore rockers with a diehard cult following.

She really has to stop trying to cast her friends as potential bandmates. And now's probably not the time. "This one's strong against electricity!" Kanji scowls, but backs off from the Zionga he'd been prepping.

The Shadow goes down, but it takes too long. They're already tired, and have a long way to go yet – Kanji and Yosuke and Chie are all dragging their feet after biking their way here, all three of them too 'macho' to let someone else do the pedalling. And by Rise's estimation, it would be nearly midnight outside the TV by now. They should have stopped and rested _before_ entering the dungeon.

Too late now. They'll have to push through, at least until they find an area they can bunker down in to catch some rest. The fox has disappeared, and they expect she'll have scouted out a safe area up ahead. In the meanwhile, Rise has enough TaP sodas on hand to keep everyone energised, even if not at peak efficiency.

Then something new shows up on Himiko's radar, and Rise nearly falls over.

"Guys!" Her voice comes out shrill, in a way that would have had her vocal coach yelling at her. "Heads up! Teddie was right! We're not alone in here!"

And then comes the voice. One so familiar, one none of them _ever_ wanted to hear again.

"About time you finally noticed. I was starting to get _bored_,"Adachi says, and steps around the corner.


	14. Chapter 14

**Warning: **Contains violence and occasional language. Also, spoilers for _everything_.

**Author's Note: **Big fat scene of a chapter. A little bit ahead of schedule. Might pick up the pace with posting now that I've finished writing and there's only really a bit of formatting left to do.

* * *

**Reversing Arcana**

**Chapter 14**

By Sinnatious

* * *

All hell breaks loose.

"What?" Yosuke blurts. "_Adachi's in the TV_?"

"How?" Rise is freaking out. "Isn't he supposed to be in _jail_?"

"Maybe he jumped into the TV from jail? They have TVs in jail, right?" Chie's eyes are wild.

"Big enough to fit a _person_?"

Naoto remains quiet, though her hand quivers on her pistol. A suspicion, a piece of the puzzle, flits just out of reach.

Adachi's grin is elastic, and his eyes widen to that freaky, manic look they last saw in Magatsu Inaba. His _true_ face. It matches that of his Shadow reflection a little too closely for comfort. He's dressed in a plain orange tracksuit – it looks like prison clothes, and the effect is electric, even more than the vicious twist to his lips, the sneering expression. They never realised just _how disarming_ that unbuttoned dress suit had been.

"You- Where's Senpai?" Kanji snarls. He charges at the former detective, swinging his shield recklessly.

"Oops, careful there now," he says, side-stepping easily, reminding them all that while he might look a bit weedy on first glance, this is the man who fought them to a standstill nine months ago. "Don't want to _hurt_ yourself."

"Whoa, it's Adachi-baby!" Teddie is a little slow on the uptake. "Back for more, are you?" He puffs up with false bravado and fierce eyes.

"You stupid bear!" Yosuke grumbles, "How could you not notice Adachi was in here?"

"Leave it, Senpai!" Rise snaps. "I didn't notice either. This dungeon's really weird!"

"Rise's right," Naoto agrees. Her palms are sweaty, but she checks that her gun is loaded, and thumbs the safety. There's an odd pull to her muscles, and she catches her reflection miming shooting Adachi out of the corner of her eye. "We need to focus."

"That's right," Adachi all but _purrs_. "Because you don't have your precious Souji-kun to fight _for_ you this time."

"Hey!" Kanji barks. "Senpai never fought _for_ us. We can handle you just fine without him!"

Adachi raises an eyebrow. "Ohhh, so you don't need him, then? You don't mind if he stays in here to keep me company?"

Kanji splutters. "That's not what I- stop twisting my words!"

"I see. I bet you're actually really happy about this, aren't you? A chance to shine on your own. To play at being the heroes."

"It was _you_, wasn't it?" Naoto asks, in as steady a voice as she can muster through the dawning, horrified realisation. "_You_ burned down Senpai's house."

His eyes turn to her, next, and his smile widens just a little further. "Shirogane-_kun_. It's been a while." He manages to make an ordinary sentence sound so inexplicably _sleazy_ it makes her arms itch. "I'm so happy to see you. I wanted to thank you. You see, because it wasn't _all_ me. Some of the credit goes to you too."

Oh no.

"What are you talking about?" Chie demands. "Leave Naoto-kun alone!"

"What? Shirogane didn't tell you?" Adachi asks in mock delight.

"Tell us what?" Kanji asks, suspicious.

"Your little 'Detective _Prince_' sold out your big secret to a big company in the city _ages_ ago. And it's _thanks_ to this big company that I can be here with you now."

It's like being hit by a Bufudyne. For one moment, even her heart seems to freeze.

The others are already shouting denials and questions, but all Naoto can do is think_, this is my fault_.

It feels like a little part of her slips away, suffocated under the guilt and doubt and _how could she have been so careless_.

And she scarcely has enough time to absorb the blow before new faces run onto the scene, as though summoned by the very revelation.

"Adachi!"

This voice too, is familiar, but to Naoto alone. And the timing could not be worse. "Kirijo-san?"

A familiar redheaded woman dashes towards them – her high heels exchanged for knee-high boots, her tight business skirt for a pleated one, and an unusual gun clasped in her hands. Her eyes flick to Naoto in acknowledgement, but focus on Adachi. "You'll go no further!" She puts the gun to her head, amidst cries of alarm from the Investigation Team. Then- "_Persona!_"

With the crack of a gunshot, the form of a masked regal queen, clad in a black dress and sharp, silver armour, swirls into action. Shards of ice race along the floor, reaching for Adachi's ankles. At the last moment, he throws himself aside. His grin's disappeared now, replaced with a look half irritation, half loathing.

"Holy – she just shot herself in the _head_!" Yosuke sounds almost hysterical. "Did you guys see that? Tell me I wasn't the only one who saw that!"

No one answers, because it turns out Kirijo's not alone. Running after her is a white-haired man – maybe only a couple of years older than they are – in a black suit with wrapped knuckles and a red tie. Strangest of all is the girl who follows, a blonde with unnaturally bright blue eyes and some sort of contraption – headphones? – covering her ears, and footwear that looks entirely impractical for combat.

None of them, she realises, have reflections like theirs. The man's and Kirijo's are strangely fuzzy, as though distorted by static, and seem far more obedient, reflecting only the movements they're supposed to. The blonde girl, however, reflects a startlingly clear image of a black-haired, red-eyed version of herself.

"Akihiko! Aigis!" Kirijo commands.

"On it!"

"Roger."

Naoto already knew there were others with Persona, but it is still startling to see it for herself. The headphones whir, and an angel appears, a stunning likeness for Souji's Uriel. Another gunshot, and there's a golem of an emperor, wearing a wreath of leaves and holding a globe of iron.

Lightning crashes and a holy sigil flares. "Hama's no good!" Rise calls out, a minute too late in her shock. Kirijo doesn't have anyone dedicated to scanning on hand, apparently.

"Tch." Adachi's grin is back. "It's getting a bit crowded here. We'll have to pick this up again later." With a sharp gesture, he unleashes a Magarudyne. The vicious wind lashes them, howling and roaring and ripping at their clothes, and Naoto has to step back lest it bowl her straight over.

By the time they've straightened themselves out, he's already gone.

Yosuke swears, and moves as though to pursue, but Chie, of all people, stops him. "Hold up! Forget him. We've gotta worry about Souji!"

"And before that…" Yukiko adds, sending a pointed look at Naoto and the three newcomers.

"Who are you?" Teddie demands, projecting fierceness his cartoon form turns comical. "You don't smell right at all!"

The white-haired guy recoils. "A _bear_?"

"_Smell_?" Kirijo looks incensed at the suggestion.

The onus is on her to explain. This is Naoto's mistake – keeping such secrets from her friends. She forgets, sometimes, that she made friends with more than just their leader.

"This is Mitsuru Kirijo," Naoto introduces, albeit reluctantly. "After the investigation finished last Christmas, I looked into the possibility of other Persona users. We've been sharing information for a while. But as to what she's doing _here_…" She trails off, giving the CEO a pointed look. Waiting for an explanation.

If she's at all ruffled, Kirijo doesn't show it. "I'm sorry to meet in such circumstances. These are my comrades – Akihiko and Aigis." She grimaces. "What comrades I could gather on such short notice, that is."

"There are _more_?" Yosuke boggles.

"Hey, I'm more interested in knowing why you didn't tell us about this, Naoto!" Chie complains.

Kanji leaps to her defence. "I'm sure she had her reasons!" He looks at her. "Right?"

It hurts worse to see how much trust he puts in her than it would if he'd simply been angry. "I'm sorry," she mutters. It's an awful feeling – she hasn't felt this terrible in… well, since she thought Souji was _dead_, honestly. "I'll explain properly later. But for now…" She turns to Kirijo. "I think you'd better tell us what part _you_ play in all of this. Am I right to assume _you_ were the ones who bought the TV in Junes?"

_That_ brings another round of sputtering from her friends. Kirijo is nonplussed, but her two companions look almost as confused. "I doubted that would get past you. I was surprised when you didn't call, actually."

"Why?" Rise bursts out. "Why would you do that?"

Kirijo begins to explain, and all Naoto can do is listen in growing incredulity. She outlines the basics of their research, and how they eventually brought Adachi into the picture to help, and how Souji had come into their care briefly.

"…It took some significant bribes, but we 'borrowed' him from the prison for testing. Somehow – we don't know how - Adachi stole a prototype piece of technology we'd developed to create exits from the TV, and escaped." She folds her arms. "Without our technology, we couldn't create an exit, and it was taking too long to make a new prototype, so we couldn't enter the TV to try and retrieve Adachi ourselves. Our only hope was to take the TV you told us about. Fortunately, the exit seemed to translate with the TV's location. And it had the added benefit of preventing you from stumbling across Adachi by accident in the TV world and being caught unawares." She eyes them at that. "Though it doesn't seem as though that part of the plan was effective."

Naoto's jaw clenches painfully. It takes all of her carefully cultivated self-control to stop her teeth grinding. "If you'd contacted one of us, or _anyone_, sooner, this might not have happened." She cannot resist the urge to reproach them – _they_, who had treated her like such a child and made _unforgiveable_ mistakes in light of it.

"I know." Kirijo has the grace to sound apologetic, though she does not quite speak as though she's done wrong. "I did try to contact you several times, but when I received no answer, we were unsure how to proceed. We could not notify the police of Adachi's escape - how to testify that he'd escaped into a television? Nor could we explain how we'd come to hold Souji Seta – a boy supposed to be dead - in our custody. Not without casting significant suspicion on ourselves."

Naoto understands the awkward position they'd been put in, but can barely contain her frustration at the injustice served. It dwarfs even her own guilt and shame over having the secrets she kept from her friends exposed.

They are guilty on any number of non-trivial charges - from aiding and abetting a criminal, to bribery, to confinement. Worse, their silence to protect the reputation of their company had most likely led to the death of Souji's parents, and Souji himself remains in peril, never mind what other havoc Adachi might yet wreak given the opportunity. He's a psychopath, plainly - an unusually accomplished one, but a person incapable of reform, none-the-less. Ameno-sagiri's influence might have emboldened him, made him a little more impulsive, but it didn't create anything not already there.

Frankly, compared to Adachi, Ameno-sagiri was downright _pleasant_.

This does, at least, confirm their hypothesis about the oddity of the Midnight Channel. Souji had indeed escaped for a time.

Odd, though, that they hadn't seen Adachi in Souji's place. But if he possessed the ability to exit the TV wherever he wanted… It would explain how he'd been able to stay in the TV world without experiencing the negative side effects for so long. Even someone with a Persona would struggle in the TV after a while without some form of sustenance.

"Why was the Kirijo Group even researching this?" Naoto asks. "You told me before, that the power of Shadows and Personae are dangerous to mess with." As sparing as Kirijo is with her information, she'd made _that_ part perfectly clear. Naoto's own investigations into Iwatodai turned up an alarming number of mysterious deaths, too – not the least being the former CEO and the chairman of the Kirijo Group. Then there were the cases of missing teenagers – some of whom turned up dead themselves. Couples disappearing from a love hotel. An older student, an orphan, dead from multiple gunshot wounds. A boy who passed away with no apparent cause on graduation day. All deaths suspiciously short on details.

There's an awkward silence – Kirijo's two companions seem just as interested in the answer as she. "It's difficult to explain. Our wildcard… We averted catastrophe, but it came at a high cost."

"Mitsuru…" Akihiko begins. "I thought we…" She turns her face away, and his words trail off awkwardly.

Naoto's frown deepens. It is an utterly unsatisfying explanation, but pressing further at this point is unlikely to yield anything immediately useful. Her voice is frosty when she speaks. "You _will_ explain this in further detail later_._ I would report you to the police immediately, but we have a rescue mission to mount first."

"Of course," she agrees. "For now, our top priority is recapturing Adachi."

"Our top priority is _saving Sensei_!" Teddie argues.

"One will follow the other. Your friend won't be in any danger once we recapture Adachi. But you are welcome to do as you wish," Kirijo dismisses. "I wish you luck."

It's frustrating how Kirijo can brush them off so easily. Unfortunately, that is the difference in power between a high school freelance detective and the heiress of such a massive corporation. For now, it will have to do.

"It seems, then, that all the players have gathered."

They _all_ whirl at the sound of yet _another_ voice. "Rise! Are you even paying _attention_?" Yosuke complains.

There's a note of panic in the idol's voice. "I didn't sense her _at all_!"

Teddie is shaking his head furiously. "No no no! This is all wrong! You don't smell right either!"

"Why does he keep going on about the 'smell' thing?" Akihiko asks.

No one answers. Naoto stares at the newcomer.

It's a short, almost doll-like, blonde girl, with a bob haircut and a royal blue dress that falls to just above her knees. She doesn't carry any weapons – only a heavy, arcane-looking book.

Most alarmingly, just like Teddie and the Shadows, the mirrors don't reflect her at all.

All Naoto can think is that the timing is too unfortunate to be mere coincidence - to run into Adachi and Kirijo's group and this mysterious stranger all in such quick succession. Even if they _are_ all still on the lowest floor of the dungeon. The cold metal of her pistol bites into her skin as she adjusts her grip as casually as possible.

"And who's this, huh?" Chie asks.

Naoto shakes her head. "I don't know this one."

The girl with the earphones steps forward. "I do."

The newcomer's eyes seem to glow amber, like a Shadow's, and her lips are upturned in a pleasant smile. "Aigis-chan. It is good to see you again."

"I don't understand," Aigis replies, words oddly robotic in tone, a curious resonance to them that becomes more pronounced on certain words. "Elizabeth. How is it that you are here?"

"I left the Velvet Room. To search."

Kirijo, Naoto notes, looks perturbed. As though sensing this, Elizabeth turns to her next, and her smile grows a little wider.

"Kirijo-san," she says.

"Have we met?" Kirijo replies, expression cool.

"In a manner of speaking. You may not recall." Her gaze glides over the rest of them, lingering thoughtfully on Teddie, before dismissing them as though they are beneath her notice. Her appraisal turns to their surroundings, next. "A curious dungeon, don't you think?" Her head tilts. "So blank and empty. Like a canvas, waiting to be drawn upon."

The words send an eerie chill down Naoto's spine.

"What is your purpose here?" Aigis asks. Again, her voice is curiously lacking in normal inflections.

"Why are the rest of you here?" she replies. She puts a finger to her lips, expression coy. "Perhaps," she suggests, "It's a race. What do you think?"

"Hold up!" Chie interrupts. "What do _you_ want with Souji?"

Elizabeth simply smiles mysteriously. "You'd better not fall behind." With a click of her fingers and a bright flash of light, she vanishes.

Yosuke swears. "Dude! Was she some kind of ninja? That was really weird!" Akihiko nods in fervent agreement, and the two share a moment of brotherly commiseration of not-knowing-what-the-hell-is-going-on.

Naoto rather feels like she's in the same boat. Just as she peels back one layer of mystery, a new one presents itself.

And that worried expression on Kirijo's face isn't helping.

"We don't have any time to waste," Naoto says, since no one else seems to know what to do. "You're welcome to Adachi. But Souji-senpai is _ours_."

Kirijo nods, and Naoto knows she's heard the challenge in her tone.

They part ways at the next intersection with a solemn nod, turning to different parts of the dungeon. Once they're out of earshot, Yukiko slows her pace to speak to her. "Naoto-kun? What was that about? Even if they were the ones who took the TV… aren't they on our side now?"

Her knuckles clench until they're white. "I'm sorry, Yukiko-senpai. But I don't think it would be wise to trust them. It's their fault-" _My fault_. "-Souji-senpai is in this mess in the first place. And we don't know what they might do to cover that up."

That earns grim expressions all round. Kanji cracks his knuckles a few times.

Thankfully, nobody presses her on her involvement. They don't need to. The guilt and shame are crushing enough.

Souji, she is certain, will never forgive her.


	15. Chapter 15

**Warning: **Contains violence and occasional language. Also, spoilers for _everything_.

* * *

**Reversing Arcana**

**Chapter 15**

By Sinnatious

* * *

Someone is shaking his shoulder. Yosuke swipes at the offender with a grunt. His body feels like a sandbag – if sandbags could _ache_ - and there's no way in _hell_ he's getting up yet, school or work be damned. He'll call in sick. It'll be the _truth_.

"Senpai. Psst, Senpai! Wake up!"

_Kanji_?

Yosuke lurches into a sitting position, and their skulls crack. Kanji swears as they both clutch at their foreheads. It's such a cliché moment that Yosuke's too _embarrassed_ to be annoyed. "What are _you_-"

Then he notices their surroundings – the mirrored walls, the hard ground, and the fox curled up against his side giving him a displeased look.

This is definitely not his bedroom.

It rushes back after that, and he slouches. "How are we doing for time?"

"It's been three hours. We probably oughta get goin'. Do you wanna wake up the others?"

Three hours. Three measly hours of sleep is not nearly enough after a whole day of school, then hours of cycling with a pop idol and fox on his bike, and then another couple of hours of dungeon trawling after that. Why'd he have to go be all macho and insist he and Kanji would cover the watch? They should have made at least _Teddie_ do some, except nobody actually _trusted_ Teddie with keeping watch. They probably would have woken up with Shadows as pillows.

And Kanji even has the nerve to not look tired at all. How much damn working out does that guy do anyway? No way hauling fabrics can make you that buff. "Fine, let's go."

He's too exhausted to even make a fuss of it, and wanders over to Teddie, kicking the bear suit in the side. "Hey, Ted, get up." The old routine feels marginally comforting, even though it's been months since Teddie last stayed with him. Chie gets the same treatment, prompting swearing. He leaves waking up Yukiko, Rise, and Naoto to her, lest he gets accused of being a pervert.

"I'm dying, seriously," he mutters, forcing himself to do some stretches so the mere act of _moving_ won't hurt. Working at Junes just isn't the same as joining an athletics club.

"Don't complain, Yosuke-senpai." Kanji's overheard him. Great. "Senpai's been in here for a lot longer."

"I _know_ that!" He's snappish and irritable. Too bad – he's barely slept, and this whole mess keeps getting more complicated and is stressing him out. "I'm just… frustrated, okay! Leave me alone!" It's so much worse, too, trying to fight with Jiraiya. He feels like dead weight. The slightest spark of electricity sets his nerves on fire and knocks him flat on his back, and his Garus are feeble and do hardly any damage at all. "Are we ready to go yet? I don't want those other guys to get a big lead on us."

"The Shadows will slow them down," Rise states confidently. "And they'll have to rest, too."

"And they don't have Kanzeon or Teddie's nose, right?" Chie chips in with a yawn.

"Right! Even if I can't see as far, I can keep us going in the right direction. And we won't waste time retracing our steps." Rise is somehow perfectly bubbly despite having just woken up after a night on the cold hard ground. It must be some secret idol superpower.

Naoto, on the other hand, is quiet, standing off to the side. She's been like that since they came across those other weird Persona-users.

He doesn't make any move to go try and talk to her, though. After all, she already _knew_ someone else had bought the TV in Junes and didn't say anything, even when everyone had been accusing _him_! And that she went off and told other people about the TV world without discussing it with them…

Souji probably would have been understanding. He knows how Naoto's mind works best out of the lot of them. And heck, they _all_ knew how the junior detective liked to keep things on a need-to-know basis, annoying as it could be. But Yosuke doesn't have it in him to overlook the betrayal, not right now. Maybe _after_ they get Souji out of here he'll feel a little more reasonable.

Yosuke shivers. Besides, those newcomers are just weird. Shooting themselves in the _head_ to summon their Persona? How messed up is that?

It looks like he's not the only one feeling that way – there's an awkward silence hovering over the group as they knock back a breakfast of TaP sodas and energy bars and make their way back out into the dungeon.

The Shadows are, at least, few and far between – they obviously haven't spread back into the areas Adachi and those strangers cleared yet. They make pretty good time, though even Rise can't tell how large the dungeon is. They're even getting used to ignoring their creepy reflections.

That's when they get another curve ball.

"Watch out! There's an unusual Shadow ahead!" Rise calls out in warning.

Yosuke flips his daggers in his hands, ready to call on Jiraiya – pointless though it is – on a moment's notice. Tired as he is, he wouldn't mind working some of his current frustrations out on some hapless Shadow.

The Shadow that bounces into view, however, is not what any of them expect.

Short. Snow-white. The proportions of a teddy bear. And wearing a rather adorable blue cap and collar.

"Is that… Jack Frost?" Chie asks in disbelief.

When the familiar Persona spots them, it freezes, like a deer in headlights.

Yosuke looks around, expecting to see his buddy not far behind, but the corridor is empty.

"Oh noooooo, no no no no," Teddie moans, as though something has occurred to him.

Chie half-crouches, approaching the cute Persona like one might a scared puppy. "Hey there, little guy. Where's Souji?"

"Um, Chie, I'm not sure if…"

Then suddenly, his mouth opens wide, and the two gleaming fangs inside are no longer looking so adorable. "_Hee-ho!_"

A wave of ice batters them, chilling Yosuke to the bone and leaving frost on his glasses. "Whoa!" The ice barely affects Chie, but she's caught by surprise all the same, and stumbles back, fighting to keep her feet. Yukiko shrieks. Naoto moves to help her up, but Kanji beats her to it.

As soon as she's upright again, she sweeps her fan through the air. "Agidyne!"

Jack Frost screeches, and disappears into a pillar of flame.

"Eeek!" Yukiko's flustered. "I didn't mean to- Sorry! I overreacted!"

"No, no, it's okay." Chie waves her off. "He attacked, it was his fault!"

"This is weird," Yosuke says, looking at the charred patch of ground Jack Frost inhabited mere moments before. "How can his Personae be running around _without_ _him_?"

It's starting to look like they have more than just interlopers to worry about in this dungeon.

* * *

"What the hell do you mean he can't come to the phone?" Doujima barks.

The other officers in the station pause, looking up from their work. Cursing under his breath, Doujima reaches over and slams shut the door to his office.

He loosens his tie, and tries to restrain his voice. "Look, stop trying to feed me that crap about transferrals. I'm a detective. I can _see_ that he's right there in your records. And I want to speak with him." He pauses. "What do you mean 'do I have a subpoena'? I don't _need_ one!"

The tinny voice on the other end babbles some more legal crap at him. It's bullshit. Doujima might not be one of those young hot shot geniuses who memorise the handbook and are forensic expert and lawyer and detective all rolled into one, but he's been in the business for a hell of a long time. For all the battering his department's reputation went through the previous year with those bodies strung up on aerials, he's still a damn good detective. He knows the rules and regulations like the back of his hand.

A growl builds in his throat. "_Why_ do I need to talk to him? It's none of your damn-" He takes a deep breath, and pinches the bridge of his nose. As much as he wants to, losing it isn't going to help him any. "There's a case I thought he might have some information on." The tinny voice on the other end poises another question. Grumbling under his breath, he replies, "No, it's _not_ a formal interrogation. Look, do I need to come up there myself?"

Their response nearly makes him pop an artery. "Don't _bother_? What the hell is-" His grinding teeth must surely be audible over the line. "Forget it! I'll be talking to your superior!" He scribbles the name down on the notepad next to his phone, and slams it back into its cradle.

This stinks worse than day-old sushi from the Junes food court. How the hell can't a _detective_ get a call through to a _prisoner_? He's spoken to Adachi twice _before_ without any problems, once after he'd confessed and once more after his trial – and that hadn't even been using his clout as a detective!

Doujima lights a cigarette. The smoke curls towards the ceiling, but the nicotine does little to soothe his anxiety. He doesn't _want_ to relax. His intuition has been going crazy, and his patience has run out.

He doesn't know what to do, though. They never _properly_ solved those murders. Once Adachi confessed, there had been enough circumstantial evidence for his conviction, but they never managed a full reconstruction.

He leaves his office, and wanders through the station. The two other officers on the floor – doing paperwork after their patrol – openly watch him, but nobody asks what the outburst had been about. They're all walking on eggshells around him these days. It was like this when his wife died. When Adachi betrayed them, too. And now, with his nephew…

He stops outside the interrogation room. In the back corner, shrouded by shadows, is a wide screen TV. It's mostly used for video conferencing, though they've been known to put it on in the past to occupy children waiting for their parents, or for showing videos on road safety.

Doujima takes a drag on his cigarette, and slips inside the room. He doesn't bother turning on the light.

TVs, huh? It's all so outrageous. And he never did get a proper explanation from his nephew.

Tentatively, he reaches out. The distance between his hand and the dark screen slowly closes, and…

Nothing. The screen is unyielding beneath his fingers.

He flattens his palm against it, and lets it rest there for a moment, cool against his skin. When he finally lets his hand fall, there's an ashy set of fingerprints splayed across the screen. Half-heartedly, he wipes the worst of it off with his sleeve.

He goes back to his office, and flips open the internal directory to prison services again.

He might as well stick to questions he _can_ answer. And there are still a lot of numbers left to try.

* * *

It's not long after their encounter with Jack Frost that the Investigation Team runs into Adachi again.

He turns when he hears their footsteps, and smirks. "Look who's caught up."

"_You-_"

There's the promise of murder in Yosuke's voice. Naoto feels the urge to step in, but shame stills her feet.

She does not have the right to act on the Investigation Team's behalf anymore.

Adachi ignores the outburst. "You were all taking so long, I thought you'd given up on poor little Souji-kun." He looks around the dungeon with a grin. "Pretty creepy, right? Bet you've been wondering what it means. If any of you _really_ know him."

"Shut up! You're not allowed to talk about Senpai like that!" Kanji threatens.

"Big words from a bunch of brats who haven't even finished high school yet. You've been taking an awful long time to rescue your friend, you know that? How long ago was that fire? Three weeks?" Adachi's smirk twists into a leer. "Boy, you kids must _really_ suck to take that long to get here."

"But we're here now!" Chie says, putting her foot down and her fists up. "Don't think we'll let you get away with this! What have you been doing to him?"

"Compared to all of you? Hardly anything." His voice is oily; his tongue like a striking snake as it spits out venomous, _deadly_ words so easily. "Sure, I roughed him up a little, but like _that_ hardly matters. It's nothing nearly so bad as his _friends_ _betraying him_."

Naoto flinches. She can't help it.

"And what about this damn bear? _Pathetic_. He doesn't even have a reflection. He can't even summon a Persona anymore, can he?"

"Nononononono." Teddie is shaking his head back and forth, distressed.

"Leave him alone!" Yosuke snaps. He rushes forward, daggers brandished.

Adachi slips to the side, and one swift jab sends Yosuke stumbling. He follows through with a knee to the gut that makes the others wince in sympathy. "Is that all you've got?" he taunts. He grabs Yosuke by the neck before he can find his feet again.

"Let him go!" Chie yells, ready to rush in herself.

"Guys, watch out! Don't forget, his Persona's really strong!" Rise warns.

Naoto grits her teeth. She can't shoot, not with Yosuke in the way. Chie and Yukiko are panicking without Souji's guidance. Kanji's too slow. Teddie's useless.

No choice. "_Persona!_"

It's a mistake. The minute she tries to call it forth, she knows it's a mistake.

Instead of the armour-clad, sword-wielding pixie-like Yamato-Takeru, it's the boyishly-dressed, bandage-wrapped Sukuna-Hikona.

Adachi pauses, eying her woefully insufficient Persona with interest, even as Yosuke swears and struggles in his grasp. "Hey, now. That's not the Persona I remember. Isn't that _interesting_?"

It doesn't seem to matter, though, as she's bought time for Kanji to charge in, shield brandished. "Take this, you bastard!"

Adachi dodges that, too, but he breaks his hold on Yosuke to do it. Kanji grabs him by the back of his shirt and drags him to safety.

The former detective doesn't seem bothered, though. He's looking at her, in a way that makes her skin crawl, the way she's seen psychopaths look at their victims in a courtroom. Like she's a puzzle, one he's solved and now wants to break apart.

"Heh. I've been wanting to test it. To see if it would work on others, too. I guess I've got my answer."

Naoto eyes the others.

She and Yosuke are liabilities like this – against Adachi's Magatsu Izanagi, their weaker Personae won't cut it. Teddie's even worse off. That leaves only Chie, Yukiko, and Kanji.

_All_ of them, with Souji included, had struggled against Adachi that dark December.

With only three of them at anything close to full strength, they don't stand a chance.

The call to retreat is on the tip of her tongue when the air grows suddenly frigid. Moments later, massive crystals of ice bombard the corridor, shattering like glass and spreading frost to all they touch.

Mabufudyne. A _strong_ one.

She looks to Chie, who waves her hands. "It's not me!"

"Tch." Adachi scowls. "This again?" He tosses a look their way, full of cool contempt. "…I wanted to play some more, but this way could be fun too. A race, right? Which of us will make it to your precious Souji-kun first?"

With that, Adachi cuts and runs again.

"The hell? You-!" Kanji starts to run after him.

"Wait, guys!" Rise calls in warning.

Through the clearing ice, Naoto catches a glimpse of dark skin, Egyptian silk, and white feathers.

"Oh shit," Yosuke states plainly.

Looming above them is the unmistakeable form of Isis.


	16. Chapter 16

**Warning: **Contains violence and occasional language. Also, spoilers for _everything_.

* * *

**Reversing Arcana**

**Chapter 16**

By Sinnatious

* * *

"Mediarahan!" Yukiko calls out.

The healing light passes over them as Isis fades from existence.

It had been a tough battle. Naoto flexes her fingers. Even keeping back, she had felt the bite of the cold and encroaching numbness. Isis wasn't as smart as a human, but had definitely been smarter than your average Shadow. Every attack had been carefully aimed and carefully selected, maximising every little opening.

"Damn." Yosuke drops to his knees, and slams his fist on the ground, his yellow-eyed reflection mimicking the gesture with extra gusto. "Damn! He got away _again_."

"Don't worry 'bout it, Senpai. We'll find our way first," Kanji says, voice gruff.

"It's weird, though! Why're Souji's Personae attacking _us_?" Chie complains. "Adachi I can understand, but we're here to help!"

"They're not just keeping Adachi away… they're keeping _everyone_ away," Naoto murmurs.

Yukiko nods, tucking mussed strands of long black hair back behind her ears. "It makes sense. We haven't heard Souji-kun at all in this dungeon. I can't imagine he can control them from a distance." She turns to the junior detective then. "More importantly… Naoto-kun, what happened to _your_ Persona?"

Naoto looks away, struggling to contain the urge to fidget. It doesn't really work, when her Shadow reflection does it for her.

She understands now, better than she ever wanted to, what Yosuke had gone through when Jiraiya answered his call instead of Susan-O.

"Adachi," she forces herself to say, because it's important, and they need to know to protect themselves. "He's discovered a weakness. He's figured out how to break our Personae."

"What?" Kanji shouts.

"You mean-?" Chie gibbers.

Naoto tugs her cap down low over her eyes, not able to bring herself to see their faces.

It's a terrifying possibility. Personae are born from their sense of self – reflections of the deepest parts of personalities. And Adachi has discovered how to tear them apart with self-doubt and guilt and recrimination.

It took only the tiniest trigger, and people would backslide. A strong sense of self could be worn down over time, a traumatic event could tear it away... their power is not as unassailable as they'd been led to believe. Even the TV world is proof of the regressive nature of humankind - how easy it is to crave deceit. They can clear the fog away, but it creeps back in over time.

It's a harsh lesson. It's not enough to achieve it – you have to be vigilant ever after.

Yosuke's voice is shaking. "Teddie… I remember you saying once… about what would happen if a fully-formed Persona was later denied again…"

Teddie lets out a low, keening sort of sound – the most animal noise she's heard him make in the time she's known him.

"So if Adachi can break our Personae..." Yukiko whispers.

"How could he break Senpai's, though?" Rise demands. "He had so many of them!"

An uncomfortable chill settles over the group. It seems impossible, but the proof is there, in Jack Frost and Isis and who knows what others patrolling these corridors.

"I don't really get it, but it's kinda weird, though, ain't it?" Kanji mutters. "I mean, they still look like his Personae, more or less. If they're not Personae anymore, I dunno…. shouldn't Senpai's Shadow look at least a little like him?"

"Yeah, you've got a point," Chie agrees, tapping her chin in a thoughtful manner. "They only change when you reject them."

"So that means…" Rise murmurs.

"It means it really is a race," Naoto says. "A race... until Senpai runs out of Personae."

* * *

Adachi kicks the Shadow out of the way, and keeps running down the corridor. How many fucking more of these Personae does that messed up little brat _have_?

Some of them are piss weak – he'll toy with them, kicking them around, letting them throw their feeble little Agis and Zios and Bufus at him until he blows them into dust in the crushing grip of darkness of an overcharged Mudoon. But there are a few that'll cook him and skewer him and freeze him six ways to Sunday if he's careless, and it can be hard to tell which are which, since size doesn't seem to matter a damn bit.

Like that creepy white-haired baboon carting a book around that had a disturbing array of spells, including _Megido_ which hurt like a bitch. Still, that hadn't been quite as annoying as trying to kill a _unicorn_. It hadn't packed much punch, but it had been damn resilient. He can't wait to taunt the little bastard about such a girly Persona.

That water elemental had been a bit hot, though. Her ice magic had been weak enough for him to shrug off, so he'd taken some sadistic glee in knocking her around. Shame he couldn't call on any fire magic. He could have made her _squeal_.

Voices up ahead make him slow down, sidling around a corner. The labyrinthine dungeon makes it easy to lose his pursuers, but it also means he has to be careful about crossing paths with them by accident. They're all heading in the same direction, after all, and however well-hidden the stairs might be, there's only one set per level.

It's that bitch from the Kirijo Group and her two cohorts, fighting a massive shikigami Adachi thinks looks a bit familiar. Invulnerable to anything but magic, if he remembers correctly. He enjoys watching them struggle. Maybe he can take advantage, attack once they're finished and tired and their guards are down.

Then he sees something that makes him lean forward.

"Persona!"

The Persona summoned by the weird blonde chick isn't the same one she called against him earlier. This one is all fire, and burns up the shikigami in short order.

Damn. Another freak like the brat? Maybe he'd better rethink that plan.

The white-haired punk wipes the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. "This is getting us nowhere, fast. Don't we have any way of scanning?"

"The motorcycle was hardly going to fit inside the TV," Kirijo replies.

"Huh. Guess you're right. Shame we couldn't bring Fuuta-chan."

Kirijo walks ahead, boots echoing oddly against the gleaming floor. "We didn't have time. And you two are the only ones I'd trust with this anyway."

"Not even Yukari-chan?" The blonde one – Aigis, yeah, that was it – asks guilelessly.

_That_ makes Kirijo stiffen. The guy gives her a wry look. "…Yeah, I guess she wouldn't take too well to hearing the Kirijo Group's playing with Shadows again, would she?" He adjusts the bandages protecting his hands. "That's the part I don't get, though. Why _did_ you start this up again? I thought we'd finally left it behind. _All_ of it."

Interesting. Adachi wonders if he can use this.

"I can't easily explain it." Kirijo almost sounds confused for a moment, before covering it up with a brisk, "It's complicated. Come on. We shouldn't waste any more time. We can't delay the justice department forever, and Adachi has already created more than enough problems."

Adachi waits until they're gone before stepping back out into the corridor.

He doesn't have any intention of going back. Out there, he's hopeless, pathetic, and _meaningless_. His entire existence is an exercise in boredom. But in here…

In here, he's a _God_. _Izanagi_, the master of creation.

And if he wants to keep his domain, that means stamping out every little insect who threatens it.

He cranes his neck upwards. He might not be able to sense as well as he did under the thrall of Ameno-sagiri, but he knows he's getting close, now. His pulse throbs in excitement, and the impending, _total_ victory is already sweet on his tongue.

"Not much longer, Souji-kun, and we'll see who _really_ deserves to be a God."

* * *

They're close. Even with Kanzeon struggling to make sense of the odd readings in the dungeon, she can sense Souji-senpai. "Guys! We're nearly there!"

Their shoulders sag in relief – they've been in here for over a day now, longer than any journey into the TV they've made before. The dungeon is maze-like, the mirrors disorientating, and the Shadows all over the scale in terms of strength. If it weren't for Kanzeon, they could have been lost in here for days.

As it is, a dull headache is forming behind her eyes that not even a TaP soda could chase away. She has to be vigilant, so they can avoid and spare Senpai's Personae. Even then, they've been forced to destroy five others since Isis, and Rise can only pray that more still linger beyond the range of Kanzeon's senses – especially knowing that Adachi and the Kirijo trio will not have the same hesitation.

Teddie trails her, despondent at not being able to help, and Naoto keeps pace beside them, guarding instead of taking point – her Persona had been terrifying at full strength, but this weaker version is less useful than even Jiraiya. "Are we the first?" she asks.

Rise shakes her head. "I can't tell more than that, sorry." But they'd _better_ be the first. As far as she can tell, neither Adachi nor those other strangers have a sensory-style Persona on hand, and they've been running themselves ragged all day, stopping only for toilet breaks and food. "The entrance is just up ahead."

A nervous energy buzzes through the group, and through Kanzeon's visor it looks like a wave of orange. They've struggled to make it this far, to rescue their leader when the rest of the world had already given him up for dead. Without him, they were lost, and fought and accused each other and ran in pointless circles and missed the obvious. Their Personae are crumbling in his absence. But they've managed to make it this far, regardless, and they _will_ take Senpai back!

Through the distant fog, tall doors come into focus - solid, black steel with simple silver edging. They're intimidating, but oddly reassuringly familiar. They're _Souji_, somehow, the first hint of him they've seen in this endless labyrinth of mirrors that they still don't want to think too deeply about.

They come to a stop in front of the massive doors. "He's just past here," Rise warns.

Yosuke shifts restlessly from foot to foot, and glances back her way. "Hey, Rise, do you have any Somas?"

She has two left, which go to him and Yukiko. Chie, Kanji and Naoto all make do with the last of her sodas – food and drink, the sugarier the better, have always had a peculiarly energising effect inside the TV. It's a shame the fox isn't nearby – they'd left her behind in a safe area hours ago after using some of those weird magic leaves, but maybe it's for the best. The fox had given them freebies earlier, but she's notoriously stingy with anyone other than Senpai.

"Right." Kanji cracks his knuckles and readies his shield. "Let's do this."


	17. Chapter 17

**Warning: **Contains violence and occasional language. Also, spoilers for _everything_.

**Author's Note: **This chapter gave me no end of headaches, and I'm still not completely happy with it, but I hope you like it all the same.

* * *

**Reversing Arcana**

**Chapter 17**

By Sinnatious

* * *

The door groans open at Kanji's shove. The Investigation Team enter together in tight battle formation, Rise and Teddie trailing at a safe distance.

It's a startling difference to the dungeon before it.

The entire room is wreathed in flames.

Chie poises as though to call up a Bufula, but they soon realise the fire is perpetual, and doesn't feel quite hot enough to be real – nothing nearly so intense as a Maragi. The smoke hazing the room is simply swirling fog. It looks like an apartment, though far larger and more cavernous than any apartment would normally be.

In the centre of the room is the person they've been looking for. Yosuke feels his throat closing up, not sure if the gathering tears are from _relief_ or suppressed grief or just plain old joy.

It's him. Souji. Slumped on the ground, head bowed. And standing guard over him, mask and armour glinting in the firelight, is the tall, unmistakeable form of Izanagi.

The sight of their friend is like soothing water after a trek through a long, unforgiving desert. _Proof_ that he's still alive. A small, secret part of him hadn't _really_ believed it until then.

In that state, though…

He looks like he could use more than just a good Diarama.

"Hey, partner," he says, voice cracking on the word. "Sorry we took so long."

Damn, he looks like he's been through a _war_. Yukiko's already moving to summon her Persona, but Izanagi shifts, in the slow, deadly way a tiger might move its attention to an intruder. Chie puts her hand on her friend's shoulder, stopping her.

"Hey, don't," Chie warns. "We shouldn't risk fighting this one."

"He doesn't seem that strong, though. If he won't let us near Senpai…" Rise observes, sounding puzzled. Fire continues to crackle and roar around them.

"No, you don't get it," Yosuke says, not taking his eyes off his friend for a second. "You've never seen it, I guess. _This was his first Persona_."

"Is that so?" A girlish, oddly musical voice joins in. They all jerk, whirling around, and Izanagi shifts too, wary of the new threat. Souji remains slumped and prone, though his eyelids flutter.

Stepping through the flames comes the blonde girl dressed in royal blue. Her amber eyes seem to glow in the firelight, and she bears not a mark from the journey through the dungeon.

"It's time, then," she says.

"Where the hell did you-?" Kanji starts to say, but then Rise calls out a warning, cutting him off.

"Guys! Watch out! Adachi's here too!"

The former detective slouches as he strolls through the doors behind them, and they rush to close ranks around Souji, as close as Izanagi will let them. Yosuke's just grateful the Persona hasn't attacked yet – maybe a bit of Souji is awake, maybe it can recognise _friends_.

They made it here first. They made it in time. Yosuke will _kill_ Adachi if he has to.

"I see. You've made it after all," the blonde girl – Elizabeth, Yosuke finally remembers – observes with a mild smile on her face. She could be cute, some distant part of him notes, if she weren't being so _creepy_. "We have everything we need."

Adachi, for his part, just grins like he's stumbled on a hoard of Christmas presents.

"I see," Naoto says, dawning realisation in her tone. "I've been wondering about you."

Elizabeth tilts her head curiously.

"Something's been bothering me," Naoto continues. "About how Adachi escaped from the Kirijo Group."

"What are you saying, Naoto-kun?" Chie asks.

Naoto keeps her hands wrapped around her pistol, not raised, but at the ready none-the-less. "I don't think the Kirijo Group would have been that careless. Adachi alone might have been able to escape into the TV, but to steal the technology to create an exit? That would require an accomplice. And he hasn't been turning up on the Midnight Channel, either, which means something's been hiding his presence."

Yosuke catches on. "You're saying it was _her_?" He hadn't thought much about the interloper – had mentally dumped her in with that other weird trio who ran around _shooting themselves in the head_. He eyes her with new wariness.

Elizabeth offers no correction, and Adachi, for his part, remarks, "Not bad, Shirogane-_kun_. Guess that title isn't _entirely_ for show." He sticks his hands in his pockets. "But you're too late to make any difference."

"What are you planning?" Yosuke threatens. His palms are growing sweaty on his daggers.

Adachi ignores him, stalking around them to get a clearer view of Souji and Izanagi. The Persona's masked visage turns, tracking him unerringly.

Adachi snorts. "Is _that_ all you have left, brat? That weak _copy_? Am I supposed to feel _threatened_?" He laughs, suddenly, a short and sharp bark that has Yosuke jerking in reflex. Even after fighting him in the TV last year, he can't reconcile this person with the bumbling detective who had them all fooled for months.

Adachi prowls around, while Elizabeth watches them all with bright, unreadable eyes. Still, the former detective doesn't attack, instead sticking his hands in his pockets and commenting, "Interesting place you have here, Souji-kun. Feeling guilty, are you?"

Izanagi steps back.

Yosuke feels a hint of alarm. "Wait-"

"How the high and mighty have fallen," he drawls. "All this fog, too. Maybe Ameno-sagiri wasn't so wrong about humans after all." He pauses for dramatic effect. "It's not so easy to accept when it affects _you_, is it? Knowing that your _trusted friends_ spilled the beans on the TV world. That your own _carelessness_ let your parents die. That nobody came to help you when you needed it most, even when you sacrificed _so much_ to help _them_?"

Cracks start running along Izanagi's armour. The flapping coat spontaneously develops tears.

"Shut up!" Yosuke shouts, desperate. "Don't listen to him, partner! We're here _now_! We _came_!"

Then Adachi delivers his ultimate shot.

"It's not so easy to want the truth when you're _involved_, is it?"

Izanagi shatters in a burst of light.

When the flash fades, Souji is standing in its place.

No. _Another_ Souji. This one with yellow eyes.

* * *

Naoto watches in horror as the familiar visage of their friend and leader steps forward, staring down at the slumped form of his counterpart.

Souji's Shadow. Their worst-case scenario, come to life before their eyes.

He's quiet for a moment, then raises his unnerving gaze and sweeps it across the room, lingering longest on the strange girl called Elizabeth.

Then it turns to her.

When he speaks, his voice is almost the same, but there's an oddly harsh and hollow timbre to it, an unnatural resonance that no human vocal chords could ever produce.

"I forgive you, Naoto."

The words are so unexpected she finds herself recoiling. She'd prepared herself for scathing insults, for hurtful revelations, for recriminations that would shake the very foundations of their relationship.

She had not been prepared for forgiveness.

But the Shadow isn't done. "I forgive you… because I'm _grateful_."

…What?

The Shadow turns from her to face his counterpart. "I'm _grateful_, because if it weren't for you, and it weren't for Adachi, and for the Kirijo Group… and if it weren't for _me_… my parents might still be _alive_."

Souji curls in on himself, as though he knows what words are going to follow, and desperately wants to hide from them. They hadn't even been aware he was _awake_.

"I'm _grateful_, because _that means I can go back to Inaba_."

The Shadow smiles, now – a superior, haughty smirk that would have looked more at home on _Adachi_ than their friend.

"I'm _selfish_. I'm guilty because I'm not _sad_ they're gone. To them, I was only ever a _burden_. I don't even know how to _miss_ them, because they've hardly been there my whole life. All they do is yank me from city to city and school to school."

The Shadow leans forward, almost tenderly. "What kind of monster doesn't even care that his _parents_ are _dead_?"

Souji finally speaks. "I know," he says. His voice is coarse, and hurts to listen to. "I still care… but I know. I didn't want to admit that there's a part of me that was happy. I wanted to come back to Inaba, and this way I could."

Naoto lets out a breath. She knew he could do it. Souji will accept his Shadow. He'll succeed where the rest of them failed in the past. They won't have to fight.

But the Shadow's not disappearing. It's not _finished _yet.

"Of course. My uncle might be an awful parent, but at least he _tries_. And I have _so many_ friends here, who all look up to me and rely on me _so much_."

The room has gone completely silent. Even Adachi holds his tongue, watching the unfolding spectacle with an unsettling hunger.

"But how would they react, if they knew the _true_ me?"

Naoto can't tear her gaze away – her voice won't come unstuck from her throat, even though she wants to share her support and denials and acceptance all at once. She sees the others turn unnaturally still at the words, filled with trepidation. Where is the Shadow _going_ with this?

"W-what?" Yosuke finally shakes his way out of his stupor. "What's he talking about, partner?"

The odd trance the Shadow has been keeping them in shatters under Adachi's sudden laughter. Naoto turns back to the escaped convict, eyes narrowed. Foolish. She'd almost forgotten he was there.

"You _idiots_," he sneers. "How stupid are you? Don't you get it?" His eyes dance with cruel joy. "Didn't any of you ever wonder what this weird dungeon means?"

"This fire, you mean?" Chie asks. "It's kinda obvious!"

"He means the rest of the dungeon," Yukiko says quietly.

Mirrors. Nothing but mirrors. Reflections of themselves, but never anything to show _Souji_.

Naoto's breath catches in her throat.

"I figured it out, you see. Where you get your power from, why your Personae were strong enough to take _me_ down. And once I knew how, well, it wasn't so hard to figure out how to _undo_ it," Adachi brags. "All you need to know is which buttons to push, right, _Souji-kun_?"

Unbidden, her gaze slides to the battered figure on the floor. Souji's moving now, struggling to his feet. Yosuke steps forward as though to help him stand, but a cold look from the Shadow stops him in his tracks.

"Says just the right thing always, doesn't he? Helped you all _so much_. But I bet you never realised, did you? _It went both ways_. By making you stronger, he makes _himself_ stronger. And when you're _weaker…_"

The Shadow spares Adachi a contemptuous glance for interrupting, before dismissing him thoroughly. He has eyes only for his counterpart. "The _truth_ is, I'm _furious_," it hisses, in that low, resonating voice that's so like Souji's but so _isn't_. "All that effort we put into those bonds, _forgotten_. Everything we gained, _lost_. All that _listening, _all that _understanding_, and all of those _sacrifices_."

Souji's shaking his head. "It's not their fault," he mutters. "They didn't know, they couldn't help it…"

The Shadow laughs, then, cruel and vicious. "_Them? _No. _They're_ not the problem."

Souji tenses. Naoto's not sure if he's even breathing.

"…The truth is, _I'm_ the one who's lost."

Adachi's giggling madly in the background, a sort of demented soundtrack to the Shadow's horrible soliloquy. No one else dares utter a sound.

"It's _my_ fault the Arcana's broken," the Shadow taunts, words carefully spaced, carefully measured for maximum damage. "I'm _weak_. I can't _understand_ why they took so long, why they left me to _suffer_ for so long." His expression twists. "I _hate_ them for it."

"B-but, we're_ here_." Yosuke's voice is shaking. "We-"

"Quiet," Naoto orders, even though _her_ throat is tight too. It _hurts_ to hear, but they have to bear it. However uncomfortable it is for them, it's a hundred times worse for their leader. "Let him get it out. It's the only way he'll accept it."

They'd prepared for _this_, at least. But even being prepared, she could never have anticipated the incredible _effect_ those words could have on her. Even if they're spoken in the heat of the moment and she _knows_ not to take them to heart, they're colder than the ice of a Bufudyne, and sharper than the strike of a sword.

Souji's shaking his head. "I don't blame them. It was _my_ fault! I …"

"It's okay, Senpai," she says. To buy even a few seconds more, to remind him what he's facing, so that he won't make the same mistake they _all_ made. "Don't fight it. We understand."

Yosuke still looks shell-shocked, but even he manages to nod. "Right. We'll sort it out later, okay? Nothing it says matters to us, so long as you're okay." His voice sounds thick, but sincere.

But the Shadow just laughs, and delivers its final blow.

"They don't get it. It's not about that at all. The truth, the _real _truth, is that I'm a _hypocrite._ _That's_ why the Arcana are breaking. Because I know they'd _never_ want to save the _true me_, if they _knew_ how _fickle_ I really was."

"Stop it!" Souji gasps, though the words are scarcely above a whisper.

But the Shadow won't, his voice only growing louder, stronger, with every statement. "The _truth_? I want to hide from them. I want to hurt the Kirijo Group. And I want to _kill _Adachi." The Shadow pauses, savouring the violence of the word. "I want revenge on _everyone_, even though less than a year ago I wouldn't let others do the same."

Souji cringes, and Naoto feels her first hint of real _fear_ take hold.

This is bad. She's underestimated the severity of the situation.

Chie's shaking her head. "No way! I don't believe it. I can't believe Souji really thinks like that! Not after everything we went through last year!"

"Chie-senpai!" Rise hushes her.

"His emotions have gone haywire," Naoto says, and adjusts her grip on her pistol. Her fingers are trembling, and she tightens them, willing her hand to steady. "Anything is possible."

It's too soon. She should have expected this. The sort of grief and denial that accompanies such a sudden loss would be hard enough to accept even _without_ a Shadow confronting you with it and Adachi doing everything he can to tear down your last resistance, to expose your every raw nerve to air. "Be ready," she cautions.

"I am you, and you are me," the Shadow intones. "But you're too weak to do what you _really_ want to do. Your parents are _dead_, and you're too _scared_ to do anything about it." His grin is mad, now – the sort of light in his eyes of a Shadow on the edge of independence. "So _I'll _take over, and do it _for you_."

She's no longer sure if this is even a Shadow that _can_ be accepted. Not without a lot more time than they have.

"The Truth is hard to accept, isn't it?" Adachi mocks.

Souji wavers on his feet. His lips start to work, to form words…

Then Elizabeth steps in, that pleasant smile still curving her lips.

"Thank you, Adachi-san. That'll be enough."


	18. Chapter 18

**Warning: **Contains violence and occasional language. Also, spoilers for _everything_.

**Author's Note: **An unfortunately short chapter, sorry, but the next one is quite long to compensate. It was simply the best place to the end the chapter. Hope you like it!

* * *

**Reversing Arcana**

**Chapter 18**

By Sinnatious

* * *

Yosuke tears his gaze away from the shaky form of his partner to focus on that weird interloper. He can barely wrap his head around everything that's happened, but he's determined to push past it. If Souji could overlook everything _his_ Shadow said, then it's only fair…

Adachi raises an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm saying that you're not needed anymore," Elizabeth says pleasantly. With a casual gesture, the form of a young blonde girl in a blue dress appears before her.

She giggles. The sound echoes unnaturally. She makes a curtsy, and murmurs cutely…

"…_Please die for me_."

The wave of darkness that rolls over Adachi makes Mudoon look like a flickering shadow. Yosuke finds his knees shaking, entirely of their own volition.

_Shit, was that Alice?_

She's a terrifying Persona, one Souji rarely pulled out. The first time he'd seen her, all Yosuke could think was that she reminded him of Teddie's costume in the Miss Yasogami contest, but then he'd forgotten everything else in the chilling sense of _threat_ that followed. He'd been counting themselves _lucky_ they hadn't stumbled across her in their mad dash through the dungeon.

The darkness recedes as quickly as it came. Adachi emerges shaken, but unscathed.

Elizabeth, for her part, merely seems bemused. "Resistant to that element, are you?" She flips to another page of the book, and Alice disappears, to be replaced by an angel with enormous wings, clad entirely in ornate armour.

_Metatron_?

Adachi barely has a chance to recover before the Heavenly Blade crashes down. He's flung across the flaming room, and hits the ground with a painful _thump_, sliding until he impacts the wall. He falls still. Unconscious.

Yosuke reaches for the presence of Jiraiya. It's little comfort.

"Guys, more company!" Rise warns.

He can't decide whether it's better to keep an eye on the placidly smiling girl, his friend and his Shadow who are hovering on the brink of a rejection, or the newcomers.

Three sets of footsteps thunder into the room behind him. "Finally!" A guy's voice.

"Adachi!" A girl. That weird trio from the Kirijo Group. Yosuke hadn't thought they were so close behind.

"He's unconscious," Chie offers unnecessarily.

Running over to the prone murderer, the white-haired guy quickly slaps a pair of handcuffs on him. Yosuke wants to suggest he cuff the bastard's _legs_, too, but keeps his focus split between his friend and the girl. If she pulls out Alice against _them_ this time, he's a sitting duck.

"Why?" Naoto asks. Her gun is raised now, trained on Elizabeth. "That's what I can't figure out. Why help Adachi, then turn against him? What's your purpose to all of this? What's your connection?"

"My purpose?" With a mysterious smile, Elizabeth flips open her book, and withdraws a card – a very familiar looking card. Just like the ones _they_ shatter, summoning their Personae. "This."

With a carelessly elegant gesture, she tosses the card at Souji. As it spins through the air, Yosuke catches a glimpse of a harp.

Startled, Souji raises his hand. His fingers close reflexively, crushing the card. There's a flash of white light…

Then he collapses to the ground.

The Shadow has disappeared.

* * *

He's in the lobby again.

Souji drags himself up off the black and white tiles, looking around. His Shadow's gone, but he knows he didn't accept it – had been on the verge of rejecting it, even though he _knew_ how dangerous that was. Its absence aches keenly, a void so stark that he finds himself looking down to check he's whole.

Nothing. He looks around more carefully now. The silence is unnerving. The lobby is entirely empty.

No Margaret. No Igor. And when he turns back to look, he can't see the limousine parked outside, either.

There's only the elevator, standing open, waiting.

He remains there for several long minutes, but nothing changes.

Reluctantly, he approaches the elevator – his steps a lonely echo on the chequered floor.

There's a velvet-covered chair within, the same royal blue as the carpet and drapes. A small card table sits in front of it. The back of the elevator is glass, and at the top there's an old-fashioned clock, the hands stuck on midnight.

Souji steps inside.

* * *

"What the hell did you do?" Kanji snarls, rushing forward. Only Chie's quick grab for his jacket holds him back.

"Partner? Partner! Hey, wake up!" Yosuke's kneeling next to Souji, shaking his shoulders with growing hysteria.

"He won't wake," Elizabeth tells them. "Not until it's done."

"Elizabeth-san." The blonde girl called Aigis steps forward. "What have you done?"

"Yeah, explain!" Chie demands.

"I've been searching for a way to bring _him_ back," Elizabeth explains, in a very matter-of-fact manner, the way a teacher might explain their thesis to a much younger student, never truly expecting the student to understand.

"_Our_ wildcard," Kirijo breathes.

Rise's busy scanning with Kanzeon. What she's seeing gives her chills. It's like her senpai is _dead_, even though she can still see his chest rising and falling, still sense his state of health – battered and exhausted, but unquestionably _alive_.

"He died, didn't he?" Naoto asks. Rise can hear the tremor of carefully controlled anger in her voice. "And you're trying to bring him back. But what does that have to do with Souji-senpai?"

"I finally found a way to reach him," Elizabeth remarks placidly. "But you see, there's no body left for him."

"And you needed a new one," Rise states numbly. Elizabeth nods, and holds up three fingers.

"I required three things. First, a host that could be stripped of its ego. For this, I needed the talents of Adachi Tohru. Second, that host needed the ability of the wildcard, so that a path existed for a new ego to take hold." The card she threw, Rise realises. "And third… a path to this world. The Midnight Hour ended and the time loop resolved, but new gateways into the collective heart and consciousness of humanity now exist. Pandora's Box has already been opened." She smiles at them, as though quietly delighted by her own cleverness. She reminds Rise less of a teacher now, and more of a precocious child. "To access these, I needed the work of the Kirijo Group."

Kirijo steps back, genuinely horrified. "No. I would _never_… something like _this_…"

"Not even to bring _him_ back?" Elizabeth asks with an innocent curiosity.

She shakes her head sharply. "When I received those files… I _never_ thought it would involve an innocent. I never would have touched this research again if I knew _this_ would happen." Her eyes snap to Elizabeth, and Rise can almost _see_ the frost forming behind them. "How did you do it? How could you have coordinated all of this? Not just Adachi, but _us_ as well."

Elizabeth tilts her head in acknowledgement. "I may have left the Velvet Room, but there is still much influence that can be had from the world of dreams."

"Wait," Chie interrupts, voice steadily rising in pitch. "I don't get this. Are you saying that you're going to take away Souji and have some _dead_ guy _take over his body_?"

"In a crude manner of speaking, yes," Elizabeth replies.

"What the hell?" Yosuke shouts. "We didn't come all this way to rescue him to have you take him away from us _again_!"

"But to the outside world, he is already dead, is he not? This keeps things simple."

Yosuke sputters with indignant rage, and Rise's seriously wishing Kanzeon had some kickass magic of her own right now.

There's a whir and a clunk, and one of the others from Kirijo's trio steps forward. "I don't understand, Elizabeth-san," the blonde girl called Aigis says. "Why involve an outsider? I hold the wild card too. For _him_, I would gladly give my _own_ life."

"Pointless. Your wild card was inherited. A side effect from the phenomenon following that fateful January," Elizabeth informs her. "You are not an appropriate vessel. Your subconscious desire for life and humanity is so strong it manifested as an entirely independent entity. Metis would never permit it."

The white-haired guy – Akihiko, Rise recalls belatedly – shakes his head. "This isn't right. That guy wouldn't want this."

"Stop it!" Rise demands. "Whatever it is, end it! Bring Senpai back!" Tears are prickling at her eyes. Her senpai's just lying there, and it's like he doesn't even _exist_ to Kanzeon's senses, and she's terrified that he's going to be gone for _real_ if they don't do something soon.

"I cannot. No… more accurately, I will not," she replies. "I have worked hard for this." She looks genuinely bewildered at the glares she's receiving, especially those from Kirijo and Akihiko. "I don't understand. Don't you want him back? After everything he sacrificed? He is surely an individual worth saving."

Aigis shakes her head sadly. "Elizabeth-san… I too once did not know the value of life. But as much as I would happily sacrifice myself for him, I cannot allow you to proceed with this." Inexplicably, the headphones she wears begin to spin.

With pursed lips, Elizabeth says, "I'm sorry you feel that way. I'm afraid, however, that events have already been set in motion." Then she snaps her book shut with an air of finality.

Rise turns horrified eyes on the prone form of their leader. _No way_… "Senpai!"


	19. Chapter 19

**Warning: **Contains violence and occasional language. Also, spoilers for _everything_.

**Author's Note: **Sorry for not getting around to replying to anyone's reviews this time - my life becoming ridiculously busy without any notice. Fortunately it won't mess with finishing this fic. Good timing for once.

This is the penultimate chapter, although really, the chapter after this is only a very short epilogue. This is a big monster of a chapter, mostly because the scene didn't want to break nicely. I hope you like it!

* * *

**Reversing Arcana**

**Chapter 19**

By Sinnatious

* * *

The elevator opens to the top of a tower. The moon hangs overhead, massive and blood red.

It's completely deserted, save for the almost ghostly apparition of a student, staring up at the sky.

Souji thinks they look about the same age, though he doesn't recognise the uniform. The boy's hair is dark and silky, with a hint of blue. When Souji steps out of the elevator, he turns, and reveals eyes that are almost grey.

He's tired. There's a void inside him, a hollowness that he can barely comprehend. He doesn't want to think anymore. Souji has been pushed to limits of even his understanding.

But he doesn't know how to stand still, so steps out of the elevator and onto the tower proper.

There's no breeze. It feels like it should be cold, but there's a curious lack of bite to the air. It's as though they're in a vacuum, cut off from the elements.

The boy watches as he approaches, but doesn't say anything. Souji waits until he's an arm's length away, stands for a moment, then finally asks, "What is this place?"

The silence that follows stretches for what might only be seconds, but feels like an eternity.

"...This was the destination of my journey."

His voice has the texture of a whisper floating on the wind. As though he's hearing the echo instead of the words.

Souji looks around. There's still not much to see. "And you are?"

"…Like you."

The boy turns his face away, staring up at the moon again, hands resting in his pockets and seemingly unbothered by the desolate emptiness of their surrounds.

For the first time, Souji has met someone he cannot read at all.

He ponders that for a moment, then asks, "Why am I here?"

There's a hint of smile now, though it looks faintly sad. "…You shouldn't be. You were forced here. To take my place."

Souji blinks, and suddenly they're no longer on the tower, but in an equally vast room, with gilded walls and a door as tall as a skyscraper. Massive eyes are embedded in it, tracking wildly, as though searching desperately for escape.

And across the doors, wrapped in barbed wire, hangs the stone figure of the boy before him.

The boy looks up at it, that wistful smile still resting on his lips. In here, under brighter light, he looks strangely insubstantial.

"…They don't understand that you can't reclaim what is already spent."

Souji understands now. If a Persona is a shadow of a true self, then this is the shadow that shadow casts. Leftover essence. Little more than a memory.

"How?" he asks.

"…You sought truth. I sought time." The smile grows, showing a hint of teeth. "My price was a little higher."

He slants him a glance. In that moment, Souji catches a glimpse, a flash of all preceding it. Of terrifically enormous shadows, midnight hours, an enormous tower, and the cries of those craving to know death.

Of a threat so dire even Izanami's Thousand Curses pales before it.

Souji mirrors his pose, hands in his pockets, looking up at the statue strung up like a sacrifice. He thinks he might understand, now, what Margaret's sister and Kirijo were trying to do. He doesn't appreciate it, and he knows he would never make the same choice, but it's easy to see how others might.

"What now?" he asks.

The boy shrugs a shoulder. "It might be hard, but we both have to stay true to ourselves, or everything we've achieved so far will disappear."

The words, such a small thing, trigger something in him. A resolve he'd thought forgotten.

That's right. He'd fought for the Truth to the bitter end. It had been easy to forget, when he'd been worn down by the stress, grief, lack of sleep, and Adachi's carefully chosen words.

He's still human, complete with flaws and vulnerable to his emotions. And even his dedication to the truth can waver, if he lets it.

Souji feels the void in him fill, like the warmth spreading to his body from a hot cup of coffee.

The boy nods, as though in approval. "Good." He reaches into his pocket, and then hands him a card – one like so many other cards in his collection. Souji holds it, and is disturbed when it settles into the World arcana. "Here. You've earned it. You stayed true to yourself, even after losing your way."

He examines it carefully. There's only one skill on the card, but there's a terrifying weight to it that dwarfs even Myriad Truths. "Why?"

"We roused the gods," is the simple reply. "Nyx and Izanami are unlikely to be the last to answer the Call."

Nodding, Souji carefully slides the card into his pocket.

He hopes he never has to use it.

His body feels light, now – the same sort of sensation he gets in a dream, just before he wakes up. He glances back towards the elevator – inexplicably, it seems to have travelled with them to this new destination.

The boy doesn't say anything, watching him with that same implacability. With the passage of the card, he's growing even more insubstantial – now, he truly looks the part of a ghost.

Souji glances up at the stone figure, suspended across the doors, one last time.

"…You're sure?" he feels compelled to offer. "We could… share."

It isn't right. He gave up _everything_. He deserves a better reward than this.

Yet the look on his face is utterly satisfied.

"I made my choice. I don't regret it."

Souji nods, and steps back into the elevator.

He understands, better than anyone, the power of choice.

* * *

Souji opens his eyes to a very unusual scene.

He's in someone's lap – Yosuke's, apparently, and his friend's grip on his shoulder is almost painful, his other arm raised in a guard.

Fire lashes overhead – a passing Maragidyne that blasts them with a wave of warmth before it crashes into their ranks. Yukiko brushes the flames aside without a care, and the soothing light of Mediarama gets the rest of the team back up on their feet in moments. The air cracks with gunshots and rumbles with thunder and hisses with frost. It's utter chaos.

A Persona, with flaming sword and streaming cape, catches the corner of his eye.

_Surt_? But he hadn't summoned any Personae. _Couldn't._

Then he sees the petite girl, with platinum hair and amber eyes and a royal blue dress just like Margaret's. He hadn't really noticed her before – unable to focus on anything but Adachi and his Shadow, only peripherally aware of his friends - and everything starts to makes sense.

"Yosuke-" he croaks.

"What- _Partner_?"

The battle freezes.

"Souji-kun!"

"Senpai!"

Everyone's staring at him strangely, full of nervous anticipation.

Then another face steps into view, looking down on him. Right, his Shadow.

Except everyone looks _relieved _at the sight of it, which doesn't make much sense considering its last threatening pronouncements. Yosuke even has tears gathering in his eyes, muttering 'thank god' under his breath.

"How?" The blonde girl, the one like Margaret, demands.

He ignores her, for now. His Shadow's waiting. It already knows. It's a formality now – he's found his understanding and resolve again. But it won't be final until he says the words.

"It's true. There's a part of me, deep down, that felt guiltier about not being sad about my parents than it did any grief. I was too busy resenting them for taking me away from Inaba." He smiles faintly. "Naoki-kun would scold me."

The admission stings, but he swallows it with the knowledge that it's only a small part. He cared for his parents, and for all their shortcomings, he knew they'd cared for him, too. The resentment had always just been part of the package.

He takes a deep breath. Admitting it all out loud is harder than it seems, but he's back on the right path now. Only by acknowledging it can he move forward.

"They're dead," he says flatly. The words seem to ring in the silence. "And they're_ never_ coming back. And I didn't want to accept that, so I would rather resent my friends, or focus on revenge, or feel guilty about wanting to come back to Inaba. I would do_ anything_ to avoid thinking about it."

He raises his eyes, to meet his Shadow's amber gaze.

"That same darkness, that violence, that craving for deceit, that part that doesn't want to face the truth… that's inside me, too."

In the end, that's the crux of his Shadow. The rest is just white noise.

"You're me, and I'm you."

His Shadow nods, and disappears in a flash of light. Izanagi stands before him again, all steel and leather. Many of the Arcana – not all, but enough – follow in a dizzying rush, the mental book of cards restoring itself, filling him with comforting warmth. They're like liquid on the parched throat of his consciousness.

"It's you? It's really you, partner?" Yosuke's voice is strained.

"Expecting someone else?" he asks, struggling to his feet with his friend's help. He's tired, but he has energy enough left for this.

"Well, actually…" Chie laughs nervously. Rise's and Teddie's eyes are both brimming with tears.

That new Persona nestled in the very back of his mental deck feels singularly heavy.

"How?" The blonde girl demands again. Souji turns towards her, letting his gaze pass over Kirijo – how was she in the TV world anyway? – and two others as he does so. The rest of the Investigation Team don't seem to consider them enemies, so he dismisses them for the moment.

"I would think it obvious. Your plan didn't work," Naoto says.

"No." That placid demeanour cracks before their eyes, giving them a barest glimpse of distraught anger. Souji observes with a detached sort of curiosity. Margaret herself had rarely strayed much beyond the emotional range of gentle admonishment and mild amusement.

"He made his choice," Souji murmurs. "You need to respect that."

Alarmingly, the smoke in the room seems to thicken.

"No," she says. "I left _everything _behind for this. I won't give up!"

She throws the book open. In a burst of light and wind, Thor materialises before them, and a storm of electricity lashes the room, crackling and snapping and burning everything it touches. The power of the magic steals his breath away – if it weren't for Izanagi's natural resistance, Souji might have been down for the count permanently, as weak as he already is. Everyone but Kanji and the white-haired stranger with Kirijo are affected.

She shuffles the pages, and Thor vanishes just as quickly, replaced with a small but powerful Persona the size of his palm. _Pixie? _But…

There's a flash of light in the corner of the room. Souji half turns. _Adachi. _

This is bad. In the space of a heartbeat, he takes stock of their situation. He's still missing some of his strongest Personae, and even if he weren't he doubts he has the energy to call any of them for long. He doesn't need Rise to tell him that their team is far from full power either – he can _feel _the fragility in the Arcana, he doesn't _need_ to see the tense nervousness in Yosuke's and Naoto's shoulders, or Teddie's quivering fear. And he doesn't know how strong Kirijo's group is – or if they can fight _at all_.

Adachi or Elizabeth _alone_ they could probably handle. Dealing with them _both_ could be a problem. _Especially _if Elizabeth is anything like her sister.

"You… _bitch_…" Adachi rasps as he scrambles to his feet. His wrists are cuffed – when did that happen? – but that lasts only a second when Surt appears, and his flaming sword cleaves the bonds in two. "Huh." His mouth twists. "I see how it is. Alliance when it's _convenient_."

Souji hoped that Adachi might be irrational enough to refuse to fight with Elizabeth – or better yet, would turn on her - but it appears that he's still smart enough to cling to the one opportunity he has. He crushes a card in his hand, and the blood-spattered form of Magatsu Izanagi takes shape.

There's a brush of movement next to him, and a faint whir catches his ears. When he turns, he sees the blonde girl who'd been standing with Kirijo. With one look, Souji can tell she's not quite human, but he can also tell she's earned the right to be.

"I am familiar with Elizabeth. You are more familiar with Adachi Tohru, correct?"

Souji nods.

"We shall hold off Elizabeth. Once you have finished with Adachi Tohru, please assist." Then she's gone, running towards Margaret's sister, with Kirijo and the other stranger moments behind.

Then he's left facing the murderer who had spent a year playing _games_ with their _lives_, who had very nearly buried Inaba in a permanent fog.

The man who'd killed his parents, and very nearly killed _him_.

"Hey, partner, are you up for this?" Yosuke asks.

He really isn't, but it's something he needs to do. "It'll be fine. Everyone knows the drill, right?"

They do, and fan out. "Rise," he calls, "Go help the others." Adachi is a known entity to them. She'll be more useful over there.

"Got it, Senpai!"

"Yukiko!"

With a flourish of her fan, she lets loose a firestorm.

It sends a chill down Souji's spine, the way it lashes and burns, as though one with the flames wreathing the room. But there's no time to fear fire, when Adachi emerges from the blaze, sooty and furious. "You damn _brats_!" With a vicious swipe of his arm, he unleashes a Maziodyne.

The storm of electricity blasts their ranks, scorching and burning. Souji still has Izanagi with him, so the sensation is muted, like an unpleasant static raking across his skin, leaving his nerves feeling raw but his body undamaged. Some of the others don't fare quite so well – Yosuke is blasted to the floor with a pained shout.

He doesn't get up.

Yukiko's a step ahead of him – healing light surrounds him. Diarama. Chie runs over and helps him back to his feet. Kanji rushes Adachi, swinging his shield with wild abandon. The former detective dodges, and strikes back with a well-placed kick.

Souji crushes a card in his hands. "Black Frost!" The inverted image of a much friendlier Persona materialises. "Masukunda!"

A haze surrounds Adachi. It won't slow him down for long, but it should make his feet drag long enough so he can't dodge _all _of their hits.

Chie's quick to take advantage with a roundhouse kick that leaves Adachi reeling. "Oh yeah! Take that!"

Adachi, he remembers, isn't weak to anything in particular, but he only has resistance to Hama and Mudo. They can wear him down this way.

Except… Chie, Yukiko, and Kanji… they're not quite up to their usual standard. Understandable. It would have been six months since any of them had been in the TV. And people can change a lot in six months.

His Shadow's words probably didn't help, either.

They'll hold, though. The _real _problem is Yosuke, Naoto, and Teddie. If they want to win, he has to fix it.

Another Maziodyne leaves them reeling and Yosuke flat on the floor again. And that's when Souji finally figures out what the problem is.

He signals Chie. _Keep Adachi busy_. She nods, and the air chills with the frost from a hasty Bufula.

Souji runs over to Yosuke. Pixie comes at his call, and a Diarama gets his friend moving once more. "Sorry, partner," Yosuke groans. "I'm just getting in the way."

"Never," he says. Then, "…You came for me."

Yosuke brightens like a sunflower catching the first rays of morning light. His grin is shaky, but his grip is strong when they clasp hands and Souji pulls him to feet. "Of course. We're partners, right?"

He smiles, nods, and gives him a short pat on the shoulder.

They don't need anything more than that.

Adachi gives them an evil grin, but there's power behind it, the expression somehow mirrored on Magatsu Izanagi and radiating like a poisonous wave. It passes over most of the team with nothing more than a shudder, but Teddie lets out a wail of despair, and Souji sees Naoto stiffen with irrational fear.

Souji moves swiftly to her side, before Adachi can call forth that Ghastly Wail, the horrid shriek that had very nearly laid the entire Investigation Team flat in a moment of carelessness last December. The twinkling light of a Patra passes over her, and she shakes out of it. "Thank you, Senpai," she says, adjusting her cap and checking her gun. "I don't know what came over me."

She's about to leap back into the fray, but he catches her shoulder. "Senpai?" she asks, confused.

"I just wanted to say, it really is okay, Naoto," he says. "We all make mistakes."

Naoto's not so easy to read as Yosuke, but he sees her still, sees the wheels turn behind her eyes, and can guess what she's thinking anyhow. One of many conversations they'd had – that even good detectives make mistakes, but the best ones_ learn_ from them and keep looking forward until the investigation is done. Like they did last year, when they were wrong about Mitsuo, and later wrong about Namatame.

He squeezes her shoulder, but doesn't spare any more words than that. There's no time. He simply has to trust that's enough.

Souji runs to Teddie next, and Pixie flits through the air, calling Patra once more. The bear stops huddling, and straightens. "Sensei?"

"Teddie."

"Senseiiii!" he blubbers. "I'm so _beary_ sorry! I-"

Souji holds up a hand to forestall him. Thunder cracks in the background as Kanji breaks out a rare Zionga.

"Teddie," he says again, "You're strong enough to stand on your own, now. You don't need me to help you anymore."

A long moment crawls by. Kanji yells something in the background, and there's a blast of searing heat as Yukiko lets loose another Agidyne. On the other side of the room, he can hear the rattle of gunfire from the other battle.

Then Teddie's face lights up with understanding. "Sensei!" he cries, eyes starry. "I'm so beary sorry I forgot!"

It's not perfect – a few words can't possibly rebuild all that's been lost - but it's enough for now. Souji pats him on the back.

His actions have not gone unnoticed, though. "Are you all stupid? Can't you see? He's just _manipulating_ you!" Adachi taunts. "_Using _you for your Personae!"

Before Souji has the chance to answer, though, Yosuke summons Susano-O. The Persona is glorious, with flaming red hair and gleaming razor wheels. The glowing green Garudyne he unleashes looks like a tornado. "It's not _using_! Friends help _each other_!"

As the roaring winds die, there's a crack of a gunshot, and Adachi stumbles back, clutching at the wound just above his knee. "That's right," Naoto remarks, smoke still drifting from the barrel of her gun. "Unlike _you_, Senpai helps _us_ become stronger, and by becoming stronger, we can help _him_."

"Yeah you big meanie! Stop picking on Sensei!" Kintoki-Douji spins above Teddie's head, rocket balanced on nubby paws. Adachi swears as chunks of ice pummel him.

"Dammit! You're such a pain in the ass! I'll kill you all!"

Not if Souji has anything to say about it.

"Loki."

When he calls this time, the Persona arrives promptly.

Nifleheim is devastating in a way even Teddie's Bufudyne can't hope to match. The bite of the cold stings like knives, and crystals of frost burst from every surface in its range. Adachi howls in rage and pain. The flames in half the room have been utterly extinguished, and even those beyond struggle for life.

When the summoned ice fades with Loki, Adachi is sprawled on the floor, unconscious.

For an awkward moment, the Investigation Team are silent.

"…Should we kill him?" Yosuke blurts out.

"Yosuke!" Chie exclaims in shock.

"What? It's up to Souji, of course. You wanted to, didn't you?"

"…It is likely that he'll never pay for what he's done otherwise," Naoto observes reluctantly.

It's tempting. Almost as tempting as it had been to throw Namatame into the TV. Not just for his parents, but for every cruel word, for everything Adachi's done to him _and _his friends.

Before he can think of giving into the temptation, though, the blinding white light of a Megidoloan bursts off to the side.

He doesn't think he would have really done it, but he's relieved by the distraction all the same.

"Kanji, Naoto, you guard Adachi," Souji orders, then runs towards the other battle.

"Got it, Senpai!" Kanji cracks his knuckles, and Naoto nods. The rest run after him.

As soon as they arrive, Yukiko waves her fan, and the healing light of magic passes over the battered group. "Good timing, guys!" Rise calls from her safe point.

They've held up well – at least until that last burst of magic. Obviously someone among them has a Persona with healing capabilities. Held up is all they've done, though - Elizabeth's looking slightly ruffled, her hair a little mussed, but she's clearly had the upper hand.

Not anymore.

"Give it up!" Chie orders, in a fair imitation of a police officer. "No way can you win against all of us!"

"Please, Elizabeth-san," the blonde not-quite-human girl adds.

"I refuse." She throws the book open again. Souji feels a hint of alarm when a familiar little girl in a blue and white dress appears. He slips instinctively into a guard, knowing it might not be enough, but there's no _time _to switch to a Persona that's resistant…

But before Elizabeth can deliver her order, a pale hand catches her wrist.

"That's enough, dear sister."

_Margaret_?

"_You-_" He's not the only one confused. Elizabeth looks as though she's been hit by a metaphorical delivery truck.

Souji lowers his guard cautiously. "…You left the Velvet Room?"

Margaret gives him that small smile, just a shade brighter than the pleasant neutrality she usually sports.

"It was a worthwhile sacrifice. For my sister… and for you, as well." She looks pleased. "Although you've surpassed my expectations. Maybe it wasn't necessary after all."

Elizabeth's displeasure is obvious, and she tries to shake her wrist free. "You shouldn't interfere!" Alice turns, reaching out with a giggle, darkness dancing on her fingertips-

There's a flash of butterfly wings - _Oberon?_- and the darkness dies, wasted. Another flash, and the six wings of Helel spread wide. Thunder cracks and the ground shakes under the fury of a Morning Star.

When the spots fade from their eyes and the ringing dies in their ears, Alice is gone, and Elizabeth has fallen to her knees.

And Souji is reminded of just _how terrifying _Margaret could be.

For a long moment, nobody seems to know what to say.

In the end, it's up to Yosuke to break the silence. "…Now what?"

Kirijo stiffens with recollection. "Adachi!"

"I'm on it," the white-haired guy promises, and dashes over to where Naoto and Kanji are standing guard.

Kirijo turns to him next, "I also owe you an apology, Souji Seta. It was foolish to resurrect this research to begin with. I let myself be led astray once more, and made many decisions I am not proud of." She shakes her head in stern self-reproach. "And even then, had I been more forthcoming with both you and Shirogane-san, much of this could have been averted. After so many years, I'm afraid keeping secrets has become second-nature to me."

Souji shrugs, too tired to summon any further feelings on the matter – they've been spent already. He understands - it's terribly easy to backslide, to forget everything you once stood for. Some lessons, he suspects, they'll be relearning for most of their lives.

So long as they manage every time, though, he doesn't see a problem with that.

The not-human girl – Souji eyes the odd-looking ear pieces, is she an android? – nods at him. "Thank you, Souji Seta."

Souji nods back, still not entirely sure what the whole situation with the Kirijo Group is, but he trusts his friends will fill him in later. He's less worried about them now he has allies at his back, and the reassurance that Kirijo had been more an unwitting tool than a mastermind in the whole affair goes a long way in smoothing things over.

Not completely, of course, but it helps.

He turns to Margaret and her sister next, when it seems as though Kirijo has nothing more to say. "What is that expression for?" Margaret asks in some amusement. "Oh, perhaps you are concerned about my leaving the Velvet Room?" She shakes her head, platinum blonde curls bumping her shoulders. "It's true that I cannot return, but the Master will be just fine on his own, I think. And perhaps I've become a little curious about the outside as well, after meeting you." She gives him a secret smile full of promise, and eyes her sister with what might be exasperated fondness. Margaret has always been a little difficult to read behind the façade of pleasantness.

"What will you do?" he asks.

"I'm sure we'll think of something," Margaret says. She holds out her perfectly manicured hand, and hesitantly, Souji grasps it in a gentle handshake. The skin is soft and warm under his touch, unexpectedly human and _real_. "My apologies for your trials, and my thanks for your fine efforts. Perhaps one day we'll meet again under more pleasant circumstances."

Then, with a small gesture, both sisters vanish in a small flare of light.

Goho-M? He supposes it doesn't matter. The inhabitants of the Velvet Room always struck him as overly elusive, and he decides to simply trust that Margaret will deal with her sister properly.

It's odd to think that even an hour ago, such trust was completely beyond him. It's no wonder the Arcana hadn't wanted to respond.

Souji looks around. The Kirijo trio have moved to deal with Adachi – Naoto and Kirijo appear to be having sharp words, but the detective seems to have it well in hand. The room is still on fire, but the fog and smoke have mostly cleared, and there are no Shadows to speak of.

Everyone's safe for now.

He drops to a knee. His strength is spent. He's long past the limits of his endurance.

"Souji!"

"Sensei!"

"Senpai!"

"Partner!"

"I'm okay," he tries to assure them. He closes his eyes, for just a moment, and revels in the comforting darkness. "…Just tired."

Naoto and Kanji hurry over at the commotion. "'Course you are," Kanji remarks gruffly.

"What's going on, Naoto-kun?" Yukiko asks with a nod towards Adachi and the Kirijo trio.

"They're going to take Adachi back with them and return him to prison. I have my reservations, but I believe they've learned their lesson." There are grumbles at that, but Souji just nods. He doesn't particularly want to deal with Adachi anymore. Ever again, in fact. "Kirijo-san offered the use of their exit, as it's closer. But I don't think it wise, unless Souji-senpai is unable to make the trip to… safer territory."

"I'll manage," he says.

"You sure, Souji?" Chie asks worriedly. "It's a long trip, and we only brought three bikes."

"Teddie and I can walk back, and Senpai can ride tandem!" Rise suggests. "I don't think Teddie would fit on a bike anyway."

"Yay! I get to score with Rise-chan!"

"Teddie!" Chie kicks him. Yukiko's giggling at Teddie's flailing, and Kanji seems to be blushing for entirely unrelated reasons at the prospect of the journey home.

Yosuke holds out an arm to help him up. "Whaddya say, partner? Ready to come back from the dead?"

Souji reaches up, and clasps his hand with a wry smile.

"Yeah. Let's go perform a miracle."


	20. Chapter 20

**Warning: **Contains violence and occasional language. Also, spoilers for _everything_.

**Author's Note: **A short epilogue, and we're done. Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. For a story I had once deemed abandoned and beyond saving, I'm fairly happy with it, though of course it could have still been better. I enjoyed writing it however, and hopefully some of you derived some enjoyment from reading it, too. Of two minds about the very last part, any feedback there would be welcome.

* * *

**Reversing Arcana**

**Chapter 20**

By Sinnatious

* * *

It's mid-Sunday morning by the time the Investigation Team tumble out of Yosuke's TV. The house is, thankfully, empty – Yosuke assuring everyone that his parents would both be at Junes.

Souji collapses as soon as they're out of the TV, but wakes up in Yosuke's bedroom after only a couple of hours, still exhausted but coherent enough for the Investigation Team to escort him to his uncle's house. They're all there bar Teddie – Rise having caught up in the interim, and Teddie staying behind in the TV to keep an eye on things, just in case.

"We shouldn't have let those Kirijo guys take Adachi," Yosuke grumbles from under his arm, acting as his walking crutch. "He's not even going to get the blame for this one."

Naoto nods. "It's unfortunate. Though he did at least receive the maximum sentence for the first two murders, despite the less than conclusive evidence. The justice system does not look kindly on officers abusing their station."

The streets between Doujima's house and Yosuke's are thankfully mostly empty, so nobody is around to see a teenager pronounced dead walking the streets while supported by his friends and accompanied by a shrine fox. That might have caused a commotion. It's Sunday, so people are either relaxing at home or are out enjoying the river or shopping district or Junes.

It occurs to Souji that his uncle might not even be home. He mentions this.

"I called ahead," Yosuke informs him. "Though I didn't tell him why we were coming. I am a _little_ bit worried that Doujima-san will accuse _us_ of abducting you and faking your death when he sees us."

"I wouldn't worry too much about that," Naoto remarks.

Chie slows her steps and eyes the junior detective suspiciously. "You know something Naoto-kun?"

She smiles slightly, tugging her cap low over her eyes as though to hide her pleasure. "While you were asleep, Senpai, I made some calls to confirm the Kirijo Group had kept their word."

"Did they?" Kanji asks, the threat of a good beating hiding behind those two words.

"So far, it appears so. But the truly interesting news was that apparently someone _else_ has been digging around, and noticed Adachi's disappearance. Someone who has been kicking up a very large fuss about it, one that will almost certainly result in an internal investigation."

Rise laughs. "You mean _Doujima-san_? I guess he really is a good detective after all!"

Chie kicks a rock ahead of them, nodding to herself. "So those Kirijo guys will pay, huh? Good."

Naoto folds her arms, slanting Souji a glance. "Unfortunately, I doubt the Kirijo Group will suffer any public damage. Kirijo-san is clever – she knows that the penitentiary would much rather be accused of incompetence than corruption. It's the lesser of the two scandals. Better to lose their jobs than serve jail time."

"Well, that sucks," Rise comments, nose wrinkling.

Souji's thoughts flash back to the massive tower, and the enormous doors with the statue strung across them, and twelve shadows all as monstrous as Ameno-sagiri. "…I think they've paid their price already."

Kanji shrugs. "If you say so, Senpai. Still want to give 'em a good thrashing."

"Regardless, it indicates that Doujima-san might have some suspicions already. It should make it easier to deal with him," Naoto remarks.

Then they don't have any more time to plot, because they've arrived at his uncle's house, and the sight of it fills Souji with an odd mixture of relief and trepidation. After so many weeks trapped in the stifling, lifeless TV world, it feels surreal. It's quiet, and sunny, and there are birds chirping in the trees and a cat wandering along the neighbour's fence, searching for the best possible sunbeam to lounge in.

"I kind of can't wait to see this," Yosuke confesses, and knocks on the door.

It takes half a minute for anyone to answer – he can hear his uncle's voice inside, saying he'll get the door, no doubt still paranoid after Namatame's stunt, then the heavy thud of approaching footsteps. The patter of smaller feet places Nanako directly behind him, then the doorknob rattles, it's swinging open, and his uncle and cousin are standing right there in front of him.

Doujima blinks once, very slowly. "…You…"

Then Nanako squeals, "Big bro!"

After that it's a rush of limbs and bodies and all Souji knows is that Nanako is clinging to his waist like it's a life raft and his uncle is hugging him so tight it _hurts_.

Souji doesn't complain, though, because he's returning the embrace just as fiercely.

They're herded inside, questions flying so fast that there's barely time to answer before another one is flung forward. Thanks to Naoto, they've concocted a story about a kidnapping – albeit a flimsy one. Doujima is too overjoyed to question it too deeply, yet. It will fall to pieces later, but they've bought time to come up with something better for the inevitable police investigation. Souji's still sporting a few leftover bruises from his battles that serve as evidence, and his exhaustion and hunger and thirst he doesn't need to fake at all.

That too, buys them some time. When he realises precisely how worn his nephew is, Doujima hustles him up to his bedroom – still exactly as he left it – and lets a very insistent Nanako 'keep him company', because it's obvious she's not going to let her big bro out of her sight for _a very long time_.

At the doorway, the Investigation Team say their goodbyes, since none of _them_ are exactly fresh and full of energy by this point either – and it puts off the detective's awkward questions just a little longer. Doujima grips Naoto's hand earnestly. "Thank you," he says, voice rough. "I know you're not explaining everything, but I know I have you kids to thank."

Naoto simply shakes her head. Souji can see the ghost of recriminations in her blue eyes, but he gives her a stern look, and her shoulders relax. "We'll talk later, Doujima-san. There's a lot of work involved in bringing someone back to life, after all."

His uncle swears under his breath at that – the thought apparently only just occurring to him now, along with all the inevitable complications.

Souji's not too worried, though. They already know the truth. That's the hardest part. The rest will follow.

Then his friends are tromping out, heading to their own homes, however reluctantly. Doujima sees them to the door, still talking in a low voice. Souji expects they'll call later, only to remember that his cell phone's probably been destroyed in the fire. Not just his cell phone, either – _everything_. He's an orphan now, and even the clothes on his back aren't his.

The reality of his loss hits him like a delivery truck at that moment. His chest tightens, and Souji realises that he's _finally_ going to be allowed to _grieve_.

A small hand slips into his, warm against his palm, and squeezes his fingers.

"I missed you, big bro," Nanako murmurs, eyes bright.

Souji lets out a shaky breath, and squeezes back.

It'll be okay. He won't forget again. He knows the price of not being honest with himself now.

And he has a new responsibility, too. To that heavy card in the back of his mental deck.

The voices of his friends have disappeared outside, wandering down the path into the distance, and heavy footsteps thud back up the stairs to his room. His uncle comes back inside, sees him spread out on the bed with Nanako holding his hand, and frowns at her. "Be sure to let him actually rest, okay? You look tired." That last part is delivered to him, but Doujima can't quite maintain the stern expression - the hint of smile creeping up on the edges of his mouth. From his uncle, it's as good as giddy laughter.

Nanako just nods obediently, and doesn't let go of his hand.

"I'll leave you to it for now," he says. "I've got some calls to make. If you want a change of clothes I think you left some behind. You already know where everything is, but ask Nanako if you need anything. Take it easy. I'll have to go out to get some food later… maybe I'll just order in…" He trails off into a mumble.

Souji manages a nod, and smothers a yawn. His eyes are sliding shut with the promise of sleep and safety.

Then Doujima looks down, and asks, "Why is there a fox in here?"

* * *

Thanks for reading!


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